S  E  E  M  O  1ST  8 


FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM, 


CATHOLICITY. 


BY  THE 

REV.  FERDINAND  C.  EWER,  S.  T.  1)., 


NEW    YORK: 

I).     AIM' LET  OX     AND     COMPANY, 

90.  92  &  94  GKAND  STREET. 

1869. 


y 


S  E  E  M  0  N  S 


OX   THE 


FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM, 


AND   ON 


CATHOLICITY. 


t-> 

-«••*•  ~     * 

BY  THE 

REY.  FERDINAND   C.  EWER,  S.  T.  D., 

RECTOR  OF  CHRIST  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK. 


NEW    YOEK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

90,  92  &  94  GRAND  STEEET. 
1869. 


ENTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1868,  by 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


NEW  YOKK,  November  19,  1S6S. 

REV.  F.  C.  EWER,  D.  D. : 

BELOVED  HECTOR, — The  undersigned,  Wardens  and  Vestrymen  of 
Christ  Church,  respectfully  request  the  manuscripts  of  your  late  able 
sermons  on  "  The  Failure  of  Protestantism  "  for  publication  ;  believing, 
as  they  do,  that  the  wide  spreading  of  the  same  will  prove  a  great  bene- 
fit to  the  Catholic  cause  in  the  Church. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

(Signed)  SPENCEE  K.  GREEN,  Senior  Warden. 

JAMES  DIXON,  Junior  Warden. 
JOHN  H.  RUCKEL, 
HENRY  A.  WILMERDING, 


JACOB  LANSING, 
CHARLES  T.  COOK, 
GEORGE  H.  PERINE, 


Vestrymen. 


REPLY. 

CHRIST  CHURCH  RECTORY, 

NEW  YORK,  November  20,  1863. 

DEAR  BRETHREN  :  Your  note  of  yesterday  is  before  me.  I  beg  you 
will  accept  my  thanks  for  its  kind  expressions.  Arrangements,  how- 
ever, are  already  closed  with  the  Messrs.  Appleton,  who  have  the  ser- 
mons you  allude  to  in  hand  for  publication ;  otherwise  they  would  be 
freely  at  your  disposal. 

Very  truly  your  friend  and  rector, 

F.  C.  EWER. 
To  Messrs.  GREEN,  DIXON,  RUCKEL, 

and  others,  of  the  Vestry. 


NOTE. 

INASMUCH  as  the  following  Sermons  were 
written  to  be  preached  before  mixed  congrega- 
tions, the  reader  will  therefore  pardon  such 
repetition  of  ideas  as  he  may  observe. 

F.  C.  E. 

CHRIST  CHURCH  KECTORY,  N.  Y., 

ST.  ANDREW'S  DAY,  1868. 


CONTENTS. 


SERMON  I. 

PAGE 

THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM  7 


SERMON  II. 
THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  NOT  PROTESTANT       .  .  24 

SERMON  III. 

THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  FUNDAMENTALLY  DIFFERENT  FROM  THE 

PROTESTANT  SECTS  .  .  .  .  .42 

SERMON  IV. 
PROTESTANTISM  LOGICALLY  DESTRUCTIVE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  75 

SERMON  V. 

PROTESTANTISM   ONE   OF  THE  THREE  GREAT  HERESIES  OF  THE 

CHRISTIAN  ERA  .  .  .  .  .91 

SERMON  VI. 

CATHOLICITY,  AND  ITS  PRESENTMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  AS  OP- 
POSED TO  THE  PRESENTMENT  MADE  BY  PROTESTANTISM        109 


6  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  VII. 

PAGE 

REPLY  TO  PROTESTANT  CRITICISMS  ON  THE  PRECEDING  SER- 
MONS IN  THE  RELIGIOUS  PRESS  AND  FROM  THE  PUL- 
PIT .......  136 

SERMON  Vm. 

THE  LATE  PRACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  THE  FAILURE  OF  PROT- 
ESTANTISM BY  PROTESTANTS  THEMSELVES  .  .151 


Bancroft  LlfirSf 


SEEMONS. 


FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

"  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  a  sword." — ST.  MATT.,  x.  34. 

THE  history  of  Christianity  illustrates  this 
text.  Her  career  has  been  marked  by  crises, 
when  men,  stirred  by  unusual  earnestness,  have 
risen  against  the  quiet  order  of  things  round  about 
them.  These  crises  have  occurred  at  irregular 
intervals.  They  have  always  been  provoked  by 
some  evil  that  has  been  long  and  silently  growing. 
They  are  periods^  which  try  men's  souls,  because 
they  are  periods  when  new  men  attack  old  and 
cherished  prejudices.  In  the  second  century  after 
Christ  the  germs  of  what  afterward  became  Ari- 
anism  appeared  in  Lucian  of  Antioch.  Those 
germs  grew  and  spread  in  the  Church  silently,  but 
so  widely  and  alarmingly  at  last,  as  to  lead  earnest 
Catholics  in  the  subsequent  century  to  rise  in 
their  majesty,  reassert  the  Faith  in  its  purity  as 


8  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANT1SM 

it  had  come  down  from  the  Apostles,  and  brand 
the  new  dogmas  as  deadly  heresy.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  Roman  errors  silently  and  slowly  grew  and 
spread,  till  at  last,  in  the  eleventh  century,  earnest 
Catholics  in  the  Eastern  portion  of  the  Church, 
enduring  the  evil  no  longer,  rose  in  their  majesty 
to  condemn  it ;  and  that  non-intercommunion  with 
Rome  was  decreed  by  the  Orthodox  Eastern  (or 
Greek)  Church,  which  has  lasted  till  to-day.  In 
the  Roman  portion  of  the  Church  the  same  evils 
continued  to  grow,  with  new  ones  which  broke 
out  from  time  to  time,  until  at  last,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  earnest  men  all  over  the  West  rose  in 
their  majesty  against  them;  and  we  have  the 
Reformation — so  called.  Subsequently  coldness 
and  deadness  grew  and  spread  in  the  Anglican 
portion  of  the  Church,  till  at  last,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  those  earnest  souls,  JOHN  and  CHARLES 
WESLEY,  kindled  the  blaze  of  Methodism.  God 
hath  cast  our  lines  at  the  opening  of  one  of  these 
crises.  I  would  not  have  you  un  alive  to  the  fact, 
or  undervalue  its  importance. 

For  many  years  men  have  been  floating  calmly 
down  the  stream  of  Christianity.  There  have 
been  petty  differences  and  discussions  between 
sects,  it  is  true,  but  no  general  upheaval.  Foun- 
dations have  been  undisturbed.  But  now  a  storm 
is  very  evidently  rising  which  is  disturbing  the 
bottom  of  affairs ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  predict 
how  we  shall  all  come  out  of  it.  There  are  evils 
raising  great  fronts  around  us,  evils  that  have 


AS  A  KELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  9 

been  long  and  silently  growing.  And  as  in  the 
fourth  century,  as  in  the  eleventh,  as  in  the 
fifteenth,  and  as  in  the  eighteenth,  earnest  souls 
are  at  last  roused  at  these  evils,  and  men  are 
beginning  boldly  to  speak  out.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  the  laity  are  ahead  of  the  clergy 
in  this  matter.  It  is  the  evident  and  disastrous 
failure  of  Protestantism  as  a  religious  system,  first, 
to  reach  the  masses,  and  secondly,  to  preserve 
Christianity  on  earth,  that  is  raising  the  mutter- 
ings  of  this  storm.  What  is  it  that  is  the  mother 
of  all  this  infidelity  ?  What  is  it  that  is  the  pro- 
lific cause  of  all  this  low  grade  of  spirituality  in 
character  and  life  ?  What  is  it  that  hath  broken 
up  respect  for  old  age,  for  parents,  for  authorities  ? 
What  is  it  that  hath  laid  Christianity  open  to  the 
successful  attacks  of  any  resolute  skeptic  ?  What 
is  it  that  hath  dimmed  the  clearness  of  the  eye  of 
faith  ?  What  is  it  that  hath  removed  the  spiritual 
world  and  its  dwellers  far  off  to  an  astronomical 
distance,  practically  sundering  the  communion  of 
the  saints  by  the  wall  of  death  ?  What  is  it  that 
hath  substituted  sentiment  for  principle — that 
standeth  over  the  sick-bed  anxious  to  wrest  from 
the  lips  of  the  sufferer  a  cabalistic — a  magical  ut- 
terance about  belief  in  Christ,  that  shall  save  him 
in  his  sins,  but  with  scarce  a  word  as  to  repent- 
ance and  confession  and  amendment,  and  his  sal- 
vation from  sin  ?  What  is  it  that  is  the  prolific 
cause  of  all  this  absence  of  the  self-sacrificing 
spirit  ?  What  is  it  that  has  left  the  masses  with- 
1* 


IQ  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

out  a  religion,  and  that  has  set  us  all  on  a  course 
where  we  are  at  last  ignorant  as  to  how  we  can 
get  at  those  masses?  Mission  Chapels  for  the 
poor,  with  Protestant  or  semi-Protestant  services, 
and  with  a  limited  attendance  at  each  of  the  well- 
to-do  poor,  are  amiable  but  melancholy  efforts  of 
the  day.  God  knows  we  are  thankful  for  the 
good  they  do,  but  it  is  time  that  we  no  longer 
flattered  ourselves  that  with  them  we  are  getting 
at  the  masses.  The  very  pamphlets  on  church 
work  that  are  pouring  from  the  press  are  indica- 
tions that  we  are  walking  in  darkness ;  that  we 
have  been  and  are  in  the  midst  of  some  great 
blunder.  What  is  it  that  hath  set  its  face  stub- 
bornly, and  reared  stubborn  prejudices  against 
the  only  appliances  that  have  ever  succeeded  in 
reaching  down  to  the  masses  so  as  to  hold  them 
under  control  ?  It  is  time  for  us  to  ask  how  much 
the  Protestant  prejudices,  which  we  have  inherited 
from  generations  behind  us  by  no  means  infallible, 
are  worth,  and  how  much  they  are  costing.  It  is 
time  for  us  to  ask  whether  we  shall  longer  weigh 
them  against  the  Christianizing  of  millions  of  the 
neglected  poor.  What  is  it  that  hath  left  minis- 
ters stranded  upon  the  high  rocks  of  life,  preach- 
ing to  the  select  rich  ?  What  is  it  that  hath  sold 
the  gospel  to  the  rich  in  the  house  of  God  ? 
What  is  it  that  hath  hushed  the  voice  of  resound- 
ing praise  throughout  the  great  congregation,  and 
delegated  the  praise  of  God  to  a  salaried  four? 
What  is  it  that  hath  killed  out  from  among  us  all 


AS  A  KELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  H 

anxiety  for  the  salvation  of  God's  MAN,  as  a  unit 
of  creation,  extending  through  all  time  and  space 
on  earth,  and  that  has  elevated  instead  that  self- 
ish aspect  of  religion  which  makes  it  simply  a 
process  for  the  salvation  of  the  given  individual  ? 
Your  and  my  salvation,  my  brother,  are,  of  course, 
all-important  to  ourselves ;  but  God,  when  He 
made  His  Church,  made  it  for  all  time  and  for 
MAN,  in  the  fullest  meaning  of  the  word.  Nowa- 
days, however,  so  long  as  a  given  individual  of 
to-day  can  "  get  saved  "  in  some  human  religious 
institution,  that  institution  is  considered  as  an- 
swering all  the  purposes  of  the  Church ;  and  there 
is  not  the  slightest  anxiety  as  to  whether  or  not 
that  institution  contain  a  theological  disease 
which  will  kill  it,  and  leave  the  individual  of  two 
centuries  hence  without  any  institution  to  "  get 
saved  in." 

I  propose  to  call  your  attention  to  a  few  of  the 
facts  that  mark  the  disastrous  failure  of  Protestant- 
ism ;  and  to  ask  you  whether  those  facts  are  not 
enough  of  themselves — to  say  nothing  of  others — 
to  stir  to  its  depths  any  spirit  that  has  a  particle 
of  earnestness.  And  I  warn  you  beforehand,  that, 
if  Protestantism  has  failed,  we  are  not  to  look  to 
Rome  for  a  cure.  A  recent  able  writer  *  has  said, 
this  would  be  but  to  fly  from  the  effect  to  the 
cause.  Justly  has  he  said  it ;  for  Protestantism 
was  produced  by  the  errors  of  Home ;  and  why 
fly  for  cure  from  a  system  that  has  proved  itself 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  M.  Dix. 


12  THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

false  in  the  nineteenth  century  to  one  that  proved 
itself  false  in  the  fifteenth  ? 

I  remark,  first,  that  in  this  city  there  are  300 
churches — some  of  them  large — most  of  them 
comparatively  small.  They  will  hold,  when  all 
full,  say  about  200,000  persons— call  it  250,000. 
Where  are  the  other  three-quarters  of  a  million 
of  people  in  this  city  every  Sunday  ?  Making  a 
liberal  allowance  for  children  too  young  to  attend, 
for  the  sick  who  cannot,  and  for  all  engaged  in 
employments  for  the  public  convenience,  and 
considering  those  of  our  vast  floating  population 
who  attend  as  strangers,  and  considering,  more- 
over, the  empty  seats  in  all  the  churches  each  Sun- 
day, there  is  an  enormous  residue  that  are  non- 
church-goers.  Compare,  nay,  contrast  the  im- 
mense church-attendance  of  the  population  in 
Roman  and  Greek  Catholic  countries  with  the  at- 
tendance of  the  mere  fragment  of  the  population 
in  Protestant  lands.  My  friends,  have  you  ever 
thought  of  the  fact  that  there  are  countless  thou- 
sands all  over  this  land,  that  have  rejected  Protes- 
tantism ?  Have  you  ever  thought  of  the  fact  that 
Germany  has,  as  a  nation,  rejected  Protestantism  ? 
Look,  too,  at  IsTew  England,  the  headquarters  of 
Infidelity  in  America.  Look,  too,  at  the  Protestant 
Cantons  of  Switzerland.  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
that,  in  rejecting  Protestantism,  these  countless 
thousands  have  taken  to  Rome ;  but  they  have  at 
any  rate  abandoned  the  Protestant  presentment 
of  Christianity.  There  is  scarcely  a  man  or  a 


AS  A  EELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  ^3 

woman  in  the  land  that  has  not  a  relative — shall 
I  not  say  relatives  ? — who,  while  they  still  have 
a  kind  of  respect  for  the  Christian  religion,  no 
longer  believe  those  dogmas  that  all  Protestant 
denominations  preach  in  common.  The  fact  is, 
with  the  most  of  them,  dogmatic  Christianity  is 
identified  with  its  Protestant  presentment.  They 
know  no  other  ;  and,  in  abandoning  Christianity 
for  skepticism,  it  is  Protestantism  that  they  have 
weighed  in  the  balances  and  found  wanting.  And 
there  are  thousands  of  men  and  women,  therefore, 
that  at  last  do  not  go  to  church  anywhere.  These 
men  and  women  are  rearing  children;  and  the 
latter  are,  by  example,  by  casual  domestic  remark, 
and  by  carelessness  of  their  parents,  inheriting  a 
similar  abandonment.  Protestantism  has  been 
trying  to  meet  the  evil  by  modifying  and  soften- 
ing some  of  its  subordinate  dogmas.  But  people 
see  that  its  fundamental  dogmas  remain,  and  that 
the  modified  subordinate  dogmas  only  make  the 
whole  system  more  thoroughly  inconsistent  with 
itself;  and  so  the  great  evil  of  abandonment  grows 
greater  and  greater. 

'Now  rise  a  grade  above  this  class,  and  take  the 
men  and  women  that  do  attend  church.  How 
many  of  them  are  there  that  really  believe  Chris- 
tianity as  presented  by  Protestantism  ?  Some  of 
its  dogmas  they  believe  from  habit,  from  early 
prejudice,  or  they  scarcely  know  why.  But  those 
whose  minds  are  shaken  as  to  the  rest  form  a  very 
large  element  of  every  Protestant  congregation. 


14  THE  FAILURE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

This  is  a  fact  which  the  clergy  may  not  wish  to 
contemplate.  But  it  is  a  fact.  Here  we  see  not 
total  abandonment,  but  that  process  of  abandon- 
ment in  progress,  which  has  been  working  for 
much  more  than  a  century,  and  which  is  at  last 
very  noticeable  from  the  large  proportions  it  has 
at  length  assumed.  These  two  classes  I  have  men- 
tioned form  the  vast  bulk  of  the  community.  Isn't 
that  an  alarming  fact  ?  What  are  you  going  to  clo 
with  your  prejudices  against  Catholicity  under  the 
circumstances?  Mark  me;  I  make  a  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  Catholicity  and  Romanism.  Now 
turn  and  look  at  the  individuals  that  compose 
these  two  classes.  There  was  a  time  when  it  was 
the  staple  remark  that  men  became  infidels  be- 
cause they  desired  to  live  a  wicked  or  careless  life. 
Doubtless  there  are  some  even  to-day  who  are 
skeptics  for  the  above-mentioned  reason.  But  it 
were  sheer  blindness  thus  to  account  for  the  pres- 
ent general  disease  of  infidelity  which  afflicts  the 
community.  Look  around  upon  our  relatives  and 
friends  who  belong  to  the  two  great  classe's  I  have 
spoken  of.  Are  they  bad  men  ?  !N~o.  Are  they 
unreasoning  or  unreasonable  men  ?  JSTo.  Are 
they  unearnest  men?  No.  Many  of  them  are 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  honesty,  and  truthfulness, 
and  uprightness,  and  conscientiousness,  and  noble- 
ness, and  generosity,  and  hospitality,  and  kindness 
of  heart,  filled  with  all  that  which  is  the  very  basis 
of  religion.  Often  they  are  men  that  stir  our  ad- 
miration for  their  good  qualities  of  mind,  and 


AS  A  EELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  15 

heart,  and  conscience.  But  they  are  logical  men 
— men  who  cannot  be  stayed  from  passing  into 
the  legitimate  conclusions  that  fellow  from  false 
premises ;  and  they  have,  therefore,  consciously  and 
conscientiously  rejected  (that  is  the  word,  rejected), 
either  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  Protestant  present- 
ment of  Christianity,  and  deliberately  remain  in 
their  rejection.  The  grandfathers  were  Calvinistic 
Presbyterians,  the  fathers  were  Congregationalists, 
the  sons  were  Unitarians,  the  grandsons  are  Par- 
kerites  and  infidels.  The  attempt  to  mend  Protes- 
tantism as  a  religious  system  ends  in  abandoning 
it  altogether  as  a  hopeless  case.  The  Rationalists 
have  a  ground  to  stand  on;  the  true  Catholics 
have  a  ground  to  stand  on ;  but  Protestantism  has 
no  loeus  standi  (if  I  may  use  such  a  phrase),  and  its 
process  of  disappearing  I  have  given  above.  The 
men  I  speak  of  either  do  not  think  of  or  do  not 
care  to  accept  Rome,  and  so  they  are  left  without 
any  distinctive  religion,  unless  we  can  say,  indeed, 
that  each  has  his  own. 

The  two  basis  ideas  of  Protestantism  are,  first, 
"  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only  for  Christians ; " 
secondly,  "each  man  practically  his  own  infallible 
interpreter  of  it."  Now,  the  consequence  of  this 
is,  that  Protestantism  has  not  fostered  humility, 
but  arrogance.  It  has  not  cast  over  the  individual 
mind  the  wholesome  shadow  of  a  distrust  in  its  own 
ignorance,  or  partial  views,  or  unexamined  preju- 
dices; but  it  has  spread  broadcast  the  rampant 
spirit  of  practical  individual  infallibility.  And 


1(5  THE  FAILTJKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM 

so  these  men,  nursed  in  that  school,  absorbing  the 
spirit  from  the  very  atmosphere  about  them,  are 
perfectly  satisfied,  unalarmed,  and  at  peace,  each 
in  his  own  partial  or  complete  infidelity.  Then, 
again,  they  see  how  these  two  basis  ideas  have  led 
to  the  thousand  conflicting  sects  of  Protestantism, 
the  splitting  up  of  denominations  on  little  petty 
points  which  their  common  sense  tells  them  are 
unimportant ;  and  so  they  gladly  escape  the  maze 
in  disgust,  and,  with  a  self-complacent  down-look- 
ing upon  the  whole  field  of  battling  Protestant 
sects,  settle  down  themselves  into  the  mere  religion 
of  being  good  men.  It  is  all  very  well,  it  is  praise- 
worthy, this  being  a  good  man ;  but  it  isn't  Chris- 
tianity. And  so  far  as  all  these  men  are  concerned, 
Jesus  Christ  was  incarnate,  died,  rose,  established 
His  Church  and  endowed  it  with  His  life-nurturing 
Sacraments  in  vain.  So  far  as  these  men  are  con- 
cerned, God  inspired  the  Bible  in  vain ;  for  they 
reject  it.  They  will  take  parts  of  the  Bible  and 
say  they  are  true;  but  it  is  because  those  parts 
appeal  to  their  minds  as  true.  That  is  to  say, 
Protestantism  has  wrecked  the  community  on  the 
rocks  of  individualism,  and  left  each  man  to  be  a 
Bible  to  himself.  Some  people  say,  "  Any  good 
man  is  a  Christian."  But  there  were  good  men 
and  true  and  honest  before  Christ  came,  millions 
of  them.  Ancient  civilizations  could  not  have  ex- 
isted ;  indeed,  no  civilization  can  exist  without  an 
enormous  leaven  of  such  elements.  But  the  phrase 
"any  good  man  is  a  Christian,"  and  the  phrase 


AS  A  EELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  ]% 

"  a  true  Christian  is  a  good  man,"  are  by  no  means 
identical.  A  good  man  is  not  necessarily  a  Chris- 
tian. A  true  Christian  is  a  good  man,  of  course ; 
but  he  is  a  good  man  who  accepts  the  Bible  and 
all  its  truths  and  commands,  who  accepts  the  in- 
carnate Christ  as  his  Saviour,  and  the  Blessed 
Sacraments  as  the  instrumental  means  of  salvation 
appointed  and  commanded  by  Christ. 

Now,  what  is  it  that  has  led  to  and  is  respon- 
sible for  the  rise  of  these  two  enormous  classes  in 
the  community?  My  friends,  it  isn't  Christianity 
as  presented  by  the  One  Holy  Catholic  and  Apos- 
tolic Church ;  for  She  has  not  yet  got  the  ear  of 
the  people,  and  Her  truths  are  moreover  very  much 
hushed  even  in  Her  own  pulpits.  Nay,  it  is  the 
Protestant  presentment  of  Christianity  that  has 
had  their  ear  for  the  last  two  centuries.  By  its 
fruits  shall  ye  know  it.  And  this  wholesale  aban- 
donment of  it,  that  has  been  silently  and  steadily 
spreading  in  the  last  century,  till  it  has  invaded 
every  family,  is  one  of  the  indications  of  the  failure 
of  Protestantism  as  a  system ;  and  is  arousing 
many  reluctant  but  determined  souls  to  the  sad 
duty  of  dragging  down  that  which  has  been  quietly 
sitting  on  a  throne  as  a  king,  too  sacred  to  be 
touched,  and  solemnly  arraigning  it  at  the  bar  for 
trial.  Protestantism,  give  us  back  our  fathers, 
our  children,  our  husbands,  that  are  lost  in  the 
forests  of  skepticism  !  It  is  this  that  is  arousing 
and  banding  together  a  broad  Catholic  party  in 
the  Church,  which,  if  it  will  not  close  its  eyes  to 


18  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM 

the  Eoman  failure  of  the  fifteenth  century  (a  fail- 
ure made  doubly  disastrous  by  the  Bull  of  1854), 
is  determined  no  longer  to  close  its  eyes  to  the 
Protestant  failure  of  the  nineteenth.  A  party 
that  is  determined  to  maintain  and  spread  all  that 
is  truly  Catholic  that  has  come  down  from  the 
past,  and  combine  with  it  all  of  the  present  that 
has  proved  itself  good,  both  in  thought  and  in 
appliance.  It  is  this  that  has  provoked  the  begin- 
nings of  a  second  reformation,  that  will  be  a 
Reformation  indeed ;  Reformation,  did  I  say  ? 
RESTORATION  is  the  better  word. 

In  this  claim  that  Protestantism  has  failed,  you 
will  not,  of  course,  understand  me  as  asserting  that 
there  was  nothing  good  in  the  upheaval  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  This  would  be  but  mere  extrava- 
gance, foolish  exaggeration,  and  not  the  result  of 
that  calm,  attentive  out-look  which  the  seriousness 
of  the  times  and  its  dangers  demand.  That  up- 
heaval was  as  much  in  the  interest  of  true  Catho- 
licity as  it  was  in  the  interest  of  Protestantism. 
E"or  will  you  understand  me  as  meaning  to  say 
that,  with  all  the  enormous  evils  of  the  Protestant 
Heresy,  there  is  nothing  whatever  that  is  good  in 
it.  Catholics  are  not  unmindful  that  the  Meth- 
odists, for  instance,  have  struck  something  that  is 
in  harmony  with  human  nature ;  and  that  that 
something  can  be  wielded  on  the  naturally  enthu- 
siastic heart  of  man  in  a  better  w^ay,  and  on  Chris- 
tian rather  than  rationalistic  plan.  Make  the  man 
one  with  Christ  through  the  sacramental  system, 


AS  A  KELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  19 

and  then  bring  in  the  lever  of  enthusiasm,  and  you 
have  not  substituted  practical  Immediation  for 
Mediation,  nor  struck  a  ruinous  blow  at  the  foun- 
dation of  Christianity.  Catholics  are  not  unmind- 
ful of  Baptist  practice  or  Unitarian  literature. 
But  I  cannot  pause  upon  this  point. 

I  hasten  to  a  second  indication  of  the  failure 
of  Protestantism  as  a  system.  And  I  do  so  by 
asking  the  question :  Protestantism,  where  are  the 
masses  ?  When  we  run  our  eye  over  the  different 
sects,  we  are  struck  with  the  fact  that  each  is  made 
up  of  a  peculiar  type  of  man.  There  is,  for  in- 
stance, the  Methodist  type,  and  the  denomination 
vary  to  greater  or  less  extent  around  the  type ; 
then  there  is  the  Presbyterian  type,  and  the  Bap- 
tist, and  the  Quaker.  I  am  not  speaking  dispara- 
gingly; far  be  it  from  me  to  do  so.  The  whole 
matter  is  too  serious.  But  we  all  know  that  men 
are  constituted  differently,  and  have  different  ap- 
pearances. This  is  so  nationally.  !Nb  one  would 
mistake  a  Frenchman  for  a  Scotchman  or  for  a 
German.  This  is  so,  too,  inside  of  our  people. 
So  that,  speaking  generally,  there  are  nice  points 
by  which  men  may  be  classified.  Now,  as  a  fact, 
Protestantism  has  been  able  in  the  past  to  draw 
to  itself,  at  least  for  a  while,  only  certain  classes 
of  men  and  women.  And  the  patent  fact  remains 
that  it  has  failed  to  attract  man  in  all  his  condi- 
tions and  kinds.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  to 
charge  against  it  that  it  has  not  Christianized  the 
whole  world.  What  I  mean  to  say  is,  that  it  has 


20  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM 

failed  to  be  a  religion  suited  to  every  kind  of  even 
the  Aryan  man.  There  are  men  of  aesthetic 
tastes ;  its  cold  and  mean  appearance  repels  them. 
There  are  men  who  want  a  positive  faith ;  its  shift- 
ing dogmas  disgust  them.  There  are  holy  women 
and  self-sacrificing  men  who  would  gladly  live  a 
life  of  self-abnegation  and  high  spirituality,  who 
would  gladly  give  themselves  up  as  laymen  and 
laywomen  to  a  life  of  prayer  and  charity ;  it 
frowns  upon  Sisterhoods  and  Brotherhoods ;  it 
says  to  such,  Get  you  gone  from  my  doors,  I  have 
no  place  nor  need  for  such  as  you ;  and  it  turns 
them  back  either  into  the  world  or  to  Rome. 
Christ's  cause  needs  vast  amounts  of  money  all 
the  time ;  it  has  fostered  selfishness  toward  Christ, 
so  that  when  the  offertory-plate  passes  down  its 
aisles  it  is  considered  that  the  act  should  be  toler- 
ated as  an  exception ;  and,  if  it  passes  too  often, 
the  offertory-plate  is  regarded  as  a  positive  intru- 
sion. As  a  fact,  after  two  hundred  and  forty  years 
of  trial  with  a  fair  field,  even  where,  as  in  this 
country,  it  has  been  overwhelming^  in  the  as- 
cendant, it  has  failed  to  reach  the  masses.  It  has 
failed,  even  though  it  has  preached,  in  very  loud 
tones  too  at  times,  all  the  terrors  of  hell-fire,  and 
pictured  by  contrast  all  the  gross  splendors  of  a 
physical  heaven.  And  it  is  this,  too,  that  is  stir- 
ring earnest  men.  Where  are  the  masses  ?  Why 
do  your  appliances  fail  to  make  permanent  harvests 
among  them  ?  God's  man,  for  whom  He  sent 
Christianity,  includes  not  only  the  rich  merchant, 


AS  A  KELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  21 

and  the  respectable  retail  dealer,  and  the  well- 
dressed,  well-to-do  and  thrifty  artisan,  with  whom 
your  meeting-houses  are  filled,  but  the  great  base 
of  the  community  also,  the  ragged  laborer  and  the 
squalid.  Where  are  the  latter  in  your  pews  and 
at  your  meetings?  Where  is  your  control  over 
them  ?  Politics  gathers  in  all  indiscriminately  at 
its  assemblages.  How  about  Christianity  ?  WTiat 
is  the  matter  with  you?  How  long  will  you 
blindly  hug  your  prejudices,  and  leave  Rome  to 
be  the  only  one  that  can  reach  down  to  and  con- 
trol the  masses  ?  My  friends,  look  at  the  Roman 
and  the  Greek  branches  of  the  Church,  and 
contrast  them  with  Protestantism  in  this  respect. 
Why  is  it  that  the  Anglican  branch  of  the  one  great 
Catholic  Church  has  no  more  succeeded  with 
the  masses  than  has  Protestantism  ?  Why  is  it 
that  there  is  an  Episcopal  type  of  man  ?  It  is  be- 
cause we  have  run  our  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
wheels  in  the  Protestant,  Calvinistic,  and  Lutheran 
ruts,  which  they  do  not  fit,  never  will,  and  never 
can.  But  wherever  we  have  returned  to,  as  in 
Holborn,  London,  and  other  places,  and  tried 
fairly  our  own  true  Catholic  plan,  we  have,  glory 
be  to  God,  reached  down  to  the  masses,  and 
gathered  in  all  grades  of  men  from  highest  to  low- 
est. God  is  asking  of  Protestantism,  Where  are 
the  masses  ?  And  God  is  saying  to  us,  I  gave  you 
the  ten  Catholic  talents ;  why  have  you  hid  them 
in  a  napkin  ? 

It  is  not  because  the  clergy  and  laity  of  Prot- 


22  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM 

estantism  are  unalive  to  the  wants  of  the  masses, 
or  to  their  own  duty  in  the  premises,  that  Protes- 
tantism has  made  its  signal  failure.  They  are 
earnest  and  godly  men.  Heaven  knows,  they 
spare  no  efforts ;  instant  in  season,  out  of  season, 
earnest  in  prayer  and  in  work.  But  this  only 
makes  the  matter  worse.  The  fault  is  not  in 
them.  Men  are  often  better  than  their  systems, 
and,  without  doubt,  the  Protestant  clergy  and 
laity  stand  acquitted,  while  their  system  stands 
condemned. 

I  have  mentioned  but  two  counts  in  the  pre- 
sentment ;  time  forbids  me  to  go  on  with  many 
others.  But  these  alone,  viz.,  first,  the  wholesale 
abandonment  of  Protestantism  by  large  masses 
of  thinking  and  good  men,  and,  secondly,  its  fail- 
ure to  reach  the  masses,  are  signs  of  the  times 
worthy  of  the  thought  of  the  churchman  ;  and  the 
two  facts  account,  in  some  part,  for  a  movement 
among  us,  which  has  not  had  its  equal  in  earnest- 
ness and  determination  since  the  days  of  John 
Wesley ;  which  is  destined  to  lead  to  far  more 
important  results  than  his  ;  a  movement,  my 
friends,  which  is  deeper  than  ritualism,  of  which 
ritual  is  a  mere  fluttering  red  feather  ;  a  restating 
of  the  old  Catholic  and  Apostolic  grounds,  free 
from  admixture  with  Romish  error ;  a  return- 
ing to  the  old  Catholic  modes  and  appliances 
which  belong  to  the  Church  as  a  reformed  body, 
but  which  were  torn  out  of  Her  one  hundred 
years  after  She  had  reformed,  and  not  by  Her 


AS  A  RELIGIOUS  SYSTEM.  23 

friends,  but  by  Her  enemies — Oliver  Cromwell 
and  his  Koundheads,  who  broke  into  Her  for  that 
purpose;  the  scattered  fragments  of  which  the 
poor  Church  (when  She  rose  from  the  prostrate  and 
stunned  condition  in  which  Cromwell  left  Her)  did 
not  gather  together  for  a  while,  and  which  have  now 
been  so  long  disused  that  we  scarce  know  what 
they  were.  One  thing  we  know :  Our  Church  is 
a  Catholic  Church  which  has  been  worked  on 
Protestant  principles;  and  that  something  must 
be  done.  The  masses  must  be  reached,  and  this 
growing  infidelity  stopped  by  a  more  reasonable 
presentment  of  Christianity  than  Protestantism 
has  succeeded  in  making,  even  by  the  widespread 
presentment  of  our  true  Catholic  Christianity. 

There  is  a  school  of  thought  in  the  Church 
which  is  "  Broad  "  without  the  "  Church."  These 
would  plunge  us  into  rationalism.  There  is  a 
school  of  thought  that  is  "  Church  "  without  the 
"  Broad."  These  would  stiffen  the  Church  into  a 
fossil.  But  there  is  a  school  which  is  Catholic 
enough  to  hold  to  and  get  back  all  that  has  proved 
itself  good  in  the  past,  and  Broad  enough  not  to 
hesitate  to  adopt  all  that  has  proved  itself  good  in 
the  present.  This  school  is  determined  to  hold 
up  the  Catholic  Church  in  Her  continuous  life  as 
God's  Divine  Institution,  coming  down  with  au- 
thority, and  adapted  to  the  wants  of  every  man 
and  of  every  century. 

In  a  subsequent  discourse  I  shall  endeavor  'to 
answer  the  question,  "What  is  the  Catholic  Church  ? 


n. 


THE   ANGLICAN    CHURCH    NOT    PROTES- 
TANT. 

"  The  Pillar  and  Ground  of  the  Truth."— 1  TIM.  iii.  15. 

IN  accordance  with  the  promise  at  the  close 
of  last  Sunday's  sermon,  I  am  to  speak  to  you  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  Two  points  are  before  me, 
viz.  :  first,  to  show  briefly  what  the  Catholic 
Church  is ;  and  secondly,  to  show  that  we  are  a 
part  of  that  Church. 

The  word  "  Catholic  "  has  its  own,  that  is  to 
say,  its  proper  meaning.  It  has  been  used,  in 
various  languages,  to  convey  this  meaning,  for 
eighteen  hundred'  years.  But  there  is  an  inclina- 
tion among  the  sects  to  foist  upon  it  a  new  mean- 
ing, not  its  own ;  to  give  it  the  meaning  of  "  uni- 
versal "  in  a  certain  vague  sense,  and  then  to  say, 
"  Oh,  we  are  all  Catholics."  The  fact  is,  it  really 
expresses  a  large  and  glorious  idea;  Protestants 
know  it,  and  therefore  desire  the  word  for  their 
own.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  270,000,000 
of  Catholics  will  permit  the  74,000,000  of  Protes- 


ANGLICAN  CHUKCH  NOT  PEOTESTANT.^    25 

tants  to  change  its  meaning  for  their  own  pur- 
poses.* Depend  upon  it,  that  when  a  Protestant 
utters  the  language  of  the  Catholic  creed,  and 
says,  "  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,"  he 
does  not  mean  what  that  phrase  was  written  to 
mean,  and  has  meant  for  centuries,  and  honestly 
means  to-day.  There  is  a  mental  reservation 
within  him.  But  there  is  this  comfort,  namely : 
even  though  Protestants  steal  the  name,  they  can 
never  wipe  out  that  mighty  thing  of  which,  since 
the  opening  of  the  Christian  era,  it  has  been  the 
title. 

However,  when  we  leave  names  and  come  to 
things,  we  find  persons  even  in  the  Church,  who 
glory  in  that  which  is  known  under  the  term 
"Protestant."  And  such  persons  would  trium- 
phantly ask,  "  "What !  is  not  our  Church  c  Protes- 
tant ? '  Are  we  not  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  ? "  In  part  reply  to  such  I  make  this 
preliminary  remark,  viz.,  that  the  term  "  Protes- 
tant Episcopal "  has  never  been  formally  adopted 
as  a  title  for  our  Church.  It  is  barely  possible 
that  I  have  overlooked  the  supposed  fact  of  such 
adoption,  but  I  hardly  think  it  can  be  so.  As 
nearly  as  I  can  find,  the  title  stole  in  upon  us  like 
a  thief  in  the  night.  "What  appears  to  be  the 
history  of  the  case  ?  Why,  the  title  of  the  Prayer- 
Book  of  the  Church  of  England  was,  "  The  Book 

O  7 

of  Common  Prayer,  etc.,  of  The  Church,  accord- 

*  The  Roman  Catholics  number  170,000,000 ;  the  Greek  Cath- 
olics, 80,000,000  ;  and  the  Anglican  Catholics,  20,000,000. 
2 


26  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

ing  to  the  Use  of  the  United  Church  of  England 
and  Ireland."  That  is  to  say,  "  The  Prayer-Book 
of  The  Church— of  God's  Church  in  England." 
This  title  recognized  that  there  was  only  One 
Church.  Yery  well ;  before  the  Revolution  it 
was  the  same  in  America.  After  the  Revolution, 
it  became  necessary  for  the  Church — for  God's 
Church — to  have  a  Prayer-Book  suited  to  its  wants 
in  America  as  an  independent  nation.  A  general 
convention  was  held  here.  That  convention  ex- 
pressly declared  that,  in  whatever  it  did,  it  was 
"  far  from  intending  to  depart  from  the  Church 
of  England  in  any  essential  point  of  doctrine." 
Now,  that  convention  was  an  exceedingly  small 
body ;  for  the  Church  in  America  almost  died 
during  the  Revolution.  But,  before  the  conven- 
tion was  held,  several  preliminary  meetings  of 
churchmen  convened.  The  calls  for  these  meet- 
ings Vere  issued  by  irresponsible  persons ;  and  in 
those  calls  those  private  individuals — those  irre- 
sponsible persons — designated  the  Church  as  the 
"Protestant  Episcopal  Church,"  as  though  God 
had  a  dozen  other  different  kinds  of  Churches. 
It  was  their  mere  notion  to  call  it  so.  Yery  nat- 
urally (considering  the  times)  the  same  name,  hav- 
ing thus  been  brought  out,  was  used  in  all  the 
subsequent  letters  that  passed  to  and  fro  concern- 
ing the  movement;  and  was  continued  in  the 
summons  for  the  first  general  convention.  It  was 
used  by  the  few  individual  members  of  that  con- 
vention in  their  speeches.  It  got  into  resolutions 


ANGLICAN  CHUECH  NOT  PEOTESTANT.    27 

they  offered,  and  into  other  documents  that  were 
adopted  by  the  convention.  .  It  continued  its 
stealthy  advance,  and  got  on  to  the  title-page  of 
the  Ritual  that  was  adopted.  Who  put  it  there  ? 
What  printer,  what  private  member  of  a  commit- 
tee, what  unauthorized  person  ?  In  vain  have  I 
searched  the  records  of  those  early  days,  to  find 
that  the  convention  ever  adopted  the  title-page  to 
the  Prayer-Book.  Thus,  it  has  secured  a  tacit 
sanction  as  a  title,  or  rather,  I  should  perhaps  be 
more  accurate  in  saying,  a  tacit  acceptance  as  a 
title  ;  but  I  repeat,  it  was  never  formally  adopted 
as  such  by  the  Church  here  in  her  corporate  capa- 
city. The  fact  is,  the  question  concerning  a  proper 
title  for  the  Church  never  came  up.  The  very  ut- 
most that  can  be  said  is,  that  the  title  has  only 
had  a  mere  quasi  adoption.  But  the  question  is 
up  now  fairly  and  squarely ;  and  it  is  for  us  to 
consider  whether  we  ought  longer  tacitly  to  sanc- 
tion the  title  by  putting  forth  every  new  official 
document  in  the  name  of  the  "  Protestant  Epis- 
copal" Church. 

The  name  has  wrought  us  untold  harm  and 
loss.  It  has  falsified  our  position  in  the  eyes  of 
the  public.  It  has  identified  us  with  those  who 
hate  our  distinctive  and  vital  peculiarities,  our 
Apostolic  succession,  our  non-recognition  of  man- 
made  ministries,  our  non-reception  of  their  "  ordi- 
nance "  of  the  Lord's  Supper  at  their  hands,  our 
real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  Blessed  Eucharist, 
our  baptismal  regeneration,  our  natural  sym- 


28  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

patMes  with  the  Greek  Church,  which  they  re- 
gard as  only  one  step  less  vile  and  monstrous  than 
Rome.  It  has  fostered  within  us  a  Puritan,  a 
strictly  Protestant  and  un-  Church  sentiment, 
which  has  at  last  come  out  in  a  pink-covered 
pamphlet,  asking  whether  there  are  not  Catholic 
(the  writer  calls  it  "  Romanizing  ")  germs  in  the 
Prayer-Book  ;  a  pamphlet  which  admits  that  those 
who  hold  sound  Church  sentiments  among  us 
have,  after  all,  been  all  along  true  to  their  Prayer- 
Book  (the  "  precious  "  Prayer-Book  of  the  Evan- 
gelicals), and  true  to  their  Church,  and  which 
proves  in  a  most  masterly  way  that,  if  the  Prayer- 
Book  is  to  suit  the  sentiments  of  the  other,  the  so- 
called  "Evangelical"  party,  it  must  be  altered 
very  materially. 

!N~ow,  what  is  Protestantism,  and  what  is  Ca- 
tholicity? Then,  we  shall  be  able  to  tell  very 
easily  whether  our  Church  is  Catholic  or  Protes- 
tant. Of  course,  I  cannot  answer  these  great 
questions  in  one  discourse.  I  beg  you  to  note, 
moreover,  that  it  is  not  my  present  purpose  to 
prove  that  the  Catholic  view  is  true  ;  this  would 
open  up  too  wide  a  field ;  but  merely  to  give  a 
general  idea  of  what  Catholicity  is  as  contrasted 
with  Protestantism.  The  clay  is  past  for  us  longer 
to  talk  about  "  High  Church  "  and  "  Low  Church." 
The  battle  has  widened  out  on  to  a  larger  field. 
The  real  struggle  has  larger  scope.  We  have  got 
to  come  up  out  of  mere  Anglicanism  to  the  high 
standard  of  Catholicism.  As  Protestantism  is 


ANGLICAN  CHUKCH  NOT  PEOTESTANT.          29 

mere  incipient  rationalism,  the  first  duty  of  Catho- 
licity is,  to  throttle  it ;  we  must  clear  the  field 
first,  that  the  grand,  the  only  real  struggle,  may 
be  set  between  Catholicity  and  rationalism  itself. 

Now,  I  desire  to  say  this  first,  viz. :  there  are 
certain  views  held  in  the  Koman  Church  which 
are  not  Catholic,  that  is  to  say,  are  not  held  by 
the  Catholic  Church ;  and  yet  Rome  is  a  Catholic 
Church.  This  may  seem  a  strange,  perhaps  a 
self-contradictory  statement  to  you  ;  but  I  hope  to 
make  it  clear  by-and-by.  And  there  are  certain 
views  held  in  the  Greek  Church,  and  certain  other 
views  held  by  our  Church,  which  are  not  Cath- 
olic; and  yet  the  Greek  and  the  Anglican  are 
both  Catholic  Churches. 

I  remark,  first,  then,  Protestantism  founds  the 
Church  on  the  Bible,  making  the  Bible  prior.  On 
the  other  hand,  Catholicity  rests  the  Bible  on  the 
Church,  making  the  Church  prior.  Ask  a  Protes- 
tant which  he  believes  first,  Church  or  Bible  ?  and 
he  will  say,  "  Bible."  Ask  him  which  he  believes 
because  of  the  other  ?  and  he  will  say,  "  I  believe 
in  a  Church,  because  I  believe  in  the  Bible." 
"  You  start,  then,  with  the  Bible  ?  "  "  Yes." 
"  But  how  do  you  know  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of 
God  2  "  "  "Why,  I  know  it  because  <  All  Scripture 
is  given  by  inspiration  of  God.' ':  "  But,  my 
friend,  the  question  is,  what  is  Scripture  ?  how  do 
you  know  that  these  sixty-six  books  are  the  Scrip- 
ture ?  Why  is  *  Solomon's  Song '  Scripture,  and 
not  the  'Book  of  Wisdom?'  Why  the  ' Epistle 


30  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

of  St.  Jude,'  and  not  the  <  Epistle  of  St.  Clement? ' 
"Where  do  you  find  in  the  Bible  an  inspired  list  of 
canonical  books  ?  And,  if  there  were  such  list, 
how  could  you  know  that  that  list  itself  was  in- 
spired? If  you  fall  back  for  aid  on  the  holy 
Apostles,  you  find  them  quoting  the  'Book  of 
Enoch,'  and  displaying  familiarity  with  i  Wisdom ' 
and  '  Ecclesiasticus,'  and  even  quoting  passages 
from  the  heathen  poets."  The  Protestant  has  no 
answer ;  or  he  may  take  refuge  in  the  remark  that 
he  believes  the  Bible  on  account  of  its  evidences. 
"  But  have  you  ever  personally  examined  those 
evidences  to  see  if  they  are  sound  ?  "  "  !N"o  ;  but 
others  have,  and  so,  the  Bible  being  generally 
accepted,  I  accept  it."  And  after  a  series  of  ques- 
tions, my  brethren,  you  find  it  all  comes  to  this, 
namely,  that  he  believes  the  Bible  to  be  the  In- 
fallible Word  of  God,  on  the  testimony  and 
assurance  of  fallible  men.  As  another  has  ex- 
pressed it,  the  world  is  put  very  comfortably  on 
an  elephant,  and  the  elephant  on  a  tortoise,  but 
the  poor  tortoise  rests  nowhere.  My  friends,  you 
may  lay  the  Bible  open,  and  you  may  scatter  your 
open  Bible  till  it  is  in  every  household,  hotel,  and 
steamboat ;  but  for  all  that,  if  it  rests  nowhere,  it 
will  fall,  as  it  has  fallen  in  Germany,  "New  Eng- 
land, and  wherever  Protestantism  prevails.  If 
Rome  has  been  in  error  for  closing  the  Bible  (and 
there  is  no  doubt  but  that  She  was  in  grievous  er- 
ror for  so  doing),  did  it  ever  strike  you  that  She 
has  nevertheless  somehow  succeeded  in  preserving 


ANGLICAN  CHUECH  NOT  PKOTESTANT.          31 

a  hearty,  unreserved  belief  in  it,  and  a  reverence 
for  it  throughout  her  people,  which  Protestantism, 
with  its  Strausses  and  Parkers  and  Martineaus 
and  Unitarians  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
skeptics,  has  lamentably  failed  to  do  ?  An  open 
Bible  is  indispensable  for  the  world's  good  (there 
is  no  mistake  about  that),  when  your  open  Bible 
is  tenderly  cared  for,  and  not  thrown  away,  till 
people  regard  it  as  little  worth.  But  many  per- 
sons suppose  that  Protestantism  and  an  open  Bible 
are  almost  synonymous  terms.  Ah,  but  we  must 
couple  something  else  with  the  phrase  "  open 
Bible,"  if  we  would  have  it  express  the  actual  re- 
sult of  Protestantism  round  about  us.  That  re- 
sult is  "  an  -open  Bible "  indeed,  but  it  is  "  an 
open  Bible  torn  to  pieces."  "We  thank  Protes- 
tantism for  helping  true  Catholicity  in  England 
to  open  the  Bible ;  we  have  no  thanks  for  the  rest 
she  has  done,  and  we  will  not  close  our  eyes 
to  it. 

I  do  not  mean  to  Imply  that  there  is  no  in- 
fidelity and  no  tampering  with  the  Holy  Bible  in 
Koman  Catholic  lands.  But  I  assert  that  such  in- 
fidelity as  there  is  in  Roman  lands  has  sprung  out 
of  the  extravagances  and  the  errors  which  Rome 
has  superadded  to  her  Catholic  system.  "We 
equally  oppose  the  Protestant  heresy  and  the  Ro- 
man alterations  of  Catholicity.  Both  have  wrought 
vast  evils  upon*  the  world.  But  I  am  not  now 
treating  Romanism,  therefore  I  pass  on. 

Now,  on  the  other  hand,  how  is  it  with  Catho- 


32      THE  FAILUEE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

licity?  It  rests  the  Bible  on  the  Church.  The 
Catholic  knows  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God,  be- 
cause the  infallible  Church  tells  him  it  is.  But 
how  does  he  know  that  the  Church  is  infallible  ? 
I  find,  he  replies,  all  round  about  me  as  a  matter 
of  notoriety,  "  a  vast  body  existing  in  the  world, 
professing  to  be  the  keeper,  guardian,  and  inter- 
preter of  a  book  called  the  Bible."  This  body  is 
not  an  abstract  idea ;  it  is  an  actuality  in  visible 
existence  round  about  me.  It  has  definite  limits 
and  visible  peculiarities,  so  that  I  may  recognize 
and  know  what  and  where  it  is.  I  trace  this  body 
from  the  present  down  through  past  centuries.  I 
find  it  diminishing  in  size  as  I  go  back.  1  trace 
it  continuously  down  and  into  the  first  century. 
I  find  it  passing  down  deeper  than  the  New  Testa- 
ment. I  find-  it  (earlier  than  the  date  of  the  'New 
Testament)  resting  back  into  the  holy  apostles 
and  Christ.  And  I  find  that  they,  upon  whom 
the  Church  thus  rests  back  as  a  basis,  are  sur- 
rounded by  a  glory  of  miracles  and  other  positive 
attestations  that  they  are  from  God,  and  act  au- 
thoritatively. I  find,  in  fact,  that  God  was  with 
them,  nay,  that  God  Himself  came  down  and  be- 
came man,  to  be — not  the  founder  of  something 
different  and  distinct  from  Himself,  but  the  very 
Beginning  and  continuous  Life  of  that  Church, 
just  as  the  individuality  that  is  in  the  infant  con- 
tinues through  and  pervades  its  £ubsequent  exist- 
ence. I  find  that  God,  when  He  became  man, 
and  thus  created  the  Church  in  and  on  Himself, 


ANGLICAN  CHUKCH  NOT  PEOTESTANT.          33 

and  as  an  inseparable  part  of  Himself,  imparted 
to  It  the  Truth,  gave  It  authority  to  teach  that 
Truth  to  all  the  world,  and  promised  to  continue 
with  It  till  the  end  of  time,  guiding  It  infallibly. 
Thus  I  have  the  Church  resting  back,  not  on  the 
New  Testament,  but  resting  back  behind  the  New 
Testament,  on  no  less  than  the  Truth  Incarnate 
Himself.  If  Christ  is  in  and  through  the  Church 
as  Its  very  Life  and  Soul,  then,  of  course,  the 
Church  cannot  err.  And  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Church  can  err,  then  it  cannot  be  that  the  In- 
carnate Truth  Himself  pervades  Her.  So  you 
must  either  have  an  infallible  Church,  or  a  Church 
without  Christ.  And  Protestantism  can  take 
either  horn  of  the  dilemma  it  likes.  To  have 
an  infallible  Church,  I  must  have  that  on  which 
She  rests,  and  which  ever  after  pervades  Her, 
to  be  no  less  and  no  other  than  the  Truth  In- 
carnate. And,  furthermore,  I  find  myself  forced 
to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  who  founded  the 
Church,  and  promised  to  be  with  Her,  was  the 
Truth  Incarnate,  because  I  find,  behind  Him  in 
time,  a  glorious  series  of  prophecies  that  such  a 
Being  should  come,  converging  toward  Him  out 
of  long  prior  ages,  and  centring  at  last  upon  Him. 
"We  do  not  reason  in  a  circle.  We  do  not 
prove  the  New  Testament  by  the  Church  and 
then  the  Church  by  the  New  Testament.  The 
Bible  is  a  revelation  of  divine  mysteries ;  but  this 
visible  Church — running  back  with  continuous 
life  behind  the  New  Testament,  and  on  to  a  basis 

2*  v 


34:  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

which  is  itself  surrounded  by  a  glory  of  miracles, 
that  basis  resting  upon  long  prior  prophecy  as  a 
substructure — is  an  historic  fact ;  and,  if  the  Bible 
were  to-day  wiped  out  of  existence,  could  be 
traced  back  like  any  other  stupendous  and  patent 
fact  in  the  world's  career. 

Now,  during  the  first  hundred  years  or  more 
of  the  existence  of  this  Church,  many  gospels  and 
epistles  were  written  to  Her.  And  she,  already 
in  existence  before  them,  and  already  having  the 
promise  that  the  Incarnate  Truth  who  was  in  Her 
would  guide  Her  infallibly,  selects  certain  ones 
out  of  the  multitude  of  documents  written  to 
Her,  binds  them  into  a  New  Testament,  preserves 
them  and  hands  them  on  to  me  as  the  infallible 
Word  of  God.  Thus  I  have  either  an  infallible 
"Word  of  God,  resting  on  an  infallible  Church, 
which  itself,  as  an  historic  fact,  rests  on  the  Truth 
Incarnate,  who  surrounded  Himself  with  a  glory 
of  miracles  when  He  came,  to  give  me  notice  that 
He  had  come,  and  to  Whom  a  long  series  of  prior 
supernatural  events  in  the  world's  history  pointed, 
or  I  have  nothing  under  the  sun  that  I  can  trust 
in  as  a  Bible.  The  very  infallibility  of  the  Bible 
demands  the  infallibility  of  the  Church ;  the  two 
stand  or  fall  together. 

Now,  beloved,  the  Church  was  to  be  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth,  the  keeper  of  the  Word, 
as  an  invaluable  deposit  for  all  time.  Let  us  see, 
then,  whether  Protestantism  is  trustworthy  in  this 
respect;  whether  it  has  kept  the  Word.  Are 


ANGLICAN  CHUECH  NOT  PEOTESTANT.          35 

sacraments  in  the  Bible,  Baptism,  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, Orders  ?  Yes.  Well,  are  Quakers  Prot- 
estants? Yes.  But  they  have  given  up  sacra- 
ments. Protestantism  has  let  a  portion  of  the 
"Word  slip  out,  then,  at  that  hole.  Is  Confirmation 
in  the  Bible?  Yes?  Well,  are  Presbyterians 
and  Congregationalists  and  Baptists  Protestants  ? 
Yes.  But  they  do  not  believe  in  Confirmation, 
and  do  not  practise  it.  Protestantism  has  let  an- 
other portion  slip  out,  then,  at  that  hole.  Is  the 
Old  Testamenjb  a  part  of  the  Bible  ?  Yes.  Are 
Unitarians  Protestants?  Yes.  But  Unitarians 
as  a  body  think  very  little  of  the  Old  Testament ; 
they  have  dropped  it  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
as  an  effete  book ;  some  of  them  more,  some  of 
them  less  of  it.  So  Protestantism  has  let  a  por- 
tion slip  out  at  that  hole.  Are  the  Parkerite- 
Unitarians  Protestants?  Yes.  Well,  are  the 
Epistles  a  portion  of  God's  infallible  Word  to  us  ? 
Yes.  But  Parkerites  say  they  are  not.  So  Prot- 
estantism has  let  another  portion  slip  out  at  that 
hole.  JSTow  take  the  balance  of  the  Bible,  namely, 
the  four  Gospels.  Are  they  a  part  of  God's  Word 
to  us?  Yes.  But  is  the  Church  up  here  on 
Fortieth  Street  Protestant  ?  Yes ;  but  its  pastor 
writes  and  teaches  in  last  August's  magazine  that 
the  four  Gospels  are  fables  born  of  the  heated  and 
hero-worshipping  imagination  of  centuries  subse- 
quent to  Jesus ;  and  that,  as  for  the  actual  Jesus 
that  lived,  a  true  record  of  Him  is  hopelessly  lost 
to  history.  So  Protestantism  has  let  a  portion  of 


36  THE  FAILUBE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

the  Bible,  and  the  balance  of  it,  slip  out  at  that 
hole. 

Now,  on  the  other  hand,  does  the  Greek 
Church  hold  to  the  whole  Bible  ?  Yes.  Does  the 
Roman?  Yes.  Does  the  Anglican?  Yes;  and- 
when  Colenso  rises  to  say  the  Word  of  God  is  not 
the  Bible,  but  is  somewhere  scattered  round  in  it, 
nobody  can  tell  where,  the  Anglican  Church  rises 
in  all  its  national  parts  and  ejects  him  as  a  here- 
tic. That,  then,  which  is  the  pillar  and  ground 
of  the  truth,  the  keeper  of  the  Bible,  is  Catholicity 
only.  The  Church,  then,  which  the  Protestant's 
Bible  speaks  to  him  of,  cannot  be  his  Protestant- 
ism, but  must  be  that  vast  Organic  Body  he  so 
much  hates,  of  which  the  Greek,  the  Anglican, 
and  the  Roman  are  parts.  That  Church,  accord- 
ing to  promise,  has  not  erred  as  a  whole,  however 
Its  parts  may  each  have  errors  of  its  own.  And 
all  that  we  want  in  the  great  Catholic  movement 
of  to-day  is  for  the  three  parts  mutually  and  lov- 
ingly to  point  out  each  other's  errors,  as  they  are 
beginning  to  do,  and  for  each  of  the  three  to  look 
candidly  at  its  own ;  remembering  that  God  has 
not  promised  infallibility  to  any  one  part,  how- 
ever large,  any  more  than  He  has  to  any  one 
individual,  but  only  to  the  whole  in  their  united, 
corporate  and  historic  capacity.  And  that,  there- 
fore, any  part,  whether  the  Roman,  the  Greek,  or 
the  Anglican,  when  acting  alone,  is  liable  to  err. 
And  that  no  part — neither  the  Roman,  the  Greek 
nor  the  Anglican — has  the  right  to  set  up  its  pecu- 


ANGLICAN  CHUKCH  NOT  PROTESTANT.          37 

liar  dogmas  and  impose  them  as  Catholic  truth  on 
its  sister  parts.  When  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
speaks  again,  then  it  will  do  for  us  to  listen. 
Then  we  must  listen.  Now,  as  a  whole,  She  has 
spoken  in  times  past.  She  has  spoken  through 
Her  six  General  Councils  and  their  creeds.  She 
stands  in  the  past  speaking  to  us  through  Her 
consenting  voice  touching  the  Eucharist,  the  doc- 
trine of  Baptism,  the  "  other  sacraments,"  as  our 
Homily  expresses  it,  and  the  glorious  garments 
and  stately  forms  that  befit  their  administration. 
Protestantism  cares  nothing  for  all  this — she  hates 
it — she  cares  not  for  those  General  Councils.  But 
see  how  the  instinct  of  Catholicity  bows  humbly 
to  them.  And  if  you  would  test  whether  our 
Church  is  Protestant  or  Catholic,  mark  how  She 
accepts  the  creed  of  those  Councils,  guards  it  as 
too  sacred  to  be  touched,  makes  her  children  re- 
peat it  often,  and,  when  leaning  over  the  death- 
bed, tells  them  that  She  will  rehearse  to  them  the 
articles  of  the  Christian  faith  "  that  they  may  know 
whether  they  do  believe  as  Christian  men  should 
or  no." 

I  find  that  the  subject  is  large,  and  that  my 
time  is  rapidly  passing,  while  I  have  but  skir- 
mished on  the  borders  of  the  great  topic.  Should 
I  take  up  a  second  point,  it  would  prolong  this 
discourse  unduly.  I  must  therefore  postpone  the 
second  point,  and  beg  to  continue  and  close  this 
sermon  with  a  thought  suggested  by  what  I  have 
said  above.  One  of  the  ablest  of  our  American 


38  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

clergy  said,  not  long  since  (he  did  not  express  his 
thought  in  the  same  language,  but  it  is  substan- 
tially the  same  idea),  that  we  have  all  of  us  been 
saying  for  years,  "  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church."  But  what  have  we  been  meaning  all 
along  ?  "We  have  been  meaning  something  very 
like  this,  viz. :  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church — that  is  to  say,  from  the  year  33  to  the 
year  100,  entirely.  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catho- 
lic Church  from  the  year  100  to  the  year  600,  to  a 
certain  degree.  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church  from  the  year  600  to  the  year  1500,  not  at 
all.  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  from 
the  year  1500  to  the  present  time — that  is  to  say, 
in  my  portion  of  it.  But,  beloved,  that  is  not  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church  of  your  creed.  We  belong 
to  a  local  Church ;  and  we  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  calling  the  Anglican  the  Church,  as  though  it 
were  the  whole.  Just  so  Rome  has  called  herself 
the  Church,  as  though  She  were  the  whole ;  and 
the  Greeks  have  called  themselves  the  Church,  as 
though  they  were  the  whole.  But  what  is  all  this 
but  the  spirit  of  mere  sectarianism  broken  out  in 
the  great  Church  Catholic,  not  the  Catholic  spirit  ? 
Let  us  combine  with  our  friends,  who  are  rising 
in  Rome  and  in  the  East,  for  a  great  Catholic 
reformation,  under  which  local  errors  shall  be 
eliminated  from  each  and  every  part.  "We  have 
called  each  other  hard  names  long  enough.  A 
family  is  an  organic  unit  still,  though  the  brothers 
are  at  sword's  point ;  for  God  made  the  unity,  and 


ANGLICAN  CHURCH  NOT  PBOTESTANT.    39 

human  passion  cannot  break  it.  We  have  tried 
hate  for  each  other  long  enough.  How  much 
have  we  gained  by  calling  Rome  Anti-Christ,  and 
how  much  has  she  gained  by  calling  us  heretics  ? 
It  is  high  time  we  tried  something  else.  Silence 
in  the  household,  and  peace !  and  let  us  see 
calmly  what  the  matter  is.  The  Catholic  Nation- 
al Churches  have  a  common  basis  of  unity.  Prot- 
estantism has  none.  And  surely  we  have  none 
with  Protestantism.  Of  all  places  the  Catholic 
Church  is  the  last  for  the  narrow,  bigoted  spirit 
of  sectarianism.  "We,  I  say,  belong  to  a  local 
Church ;  but  go  up  upon  the  hill-top  and  look 
out.  Enlarge  your  view.  There  you  shall  see 
others — two  hundred  and  fifty  millions — differing 
with  us,  alas !  in  some  things  (but  by  no  means 
hopelessly  differing),  but  one  with  us  substantially 
in  the  acceptance  of  that  great  creed,  that  great 
view  of  Christianity  as  a  system,  which  is  so  dif- 
ferent from  the  Protestant,  and  which  has  been  set 
forth  by  the  whole  Catholic  Church ;  one  with  us 
in  owning  allegiance  to  the  same  apostolically 
descended  ministry ;  one  with  us  in  admitting  the 
same  idea  of  the  Church  as  an  organic  Body  uni- 
ted to  the  Lord,  Her  Head,  by  the  same  baptism, 
and  fed  with  Him  at  the  same  altar.  Remember 
that  "  Catholic "  does  not  mean  any  part.  That 
ministry  only  is  Catholic  which  we  all  agree  is  the 
only  authoritative,  namely,  the  Apostolic;  that 
faith  only  is  Catholic  which  we  all  agree  upon  in 
common ;  every  thing  over  and  above  is  partial, 


40  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PBOTESTANTISM. 

local,  and  not  Catholic.  Those  sacraments  only 
are  Catholic  which  all  agree  upon.  Remember, 
then,  that  Rome,  though  a  Catholic  Church,  is 
not  the  Catholic  Church ;  and  that  we,  though  a 
Catholic,  are  not  the  Catholic  Church.  Remem- 
ber that  we  must  go  deeper  and  broader  to  find 
the  Catholic  Church,  down  on  to  the  great  foun- 
dation where  we  all  three  stand ;  down  out  of  the 
differences  between  the  brothers  and  on  to  the 
unity  of  the  family.  Brethren,  just  there  is  the 
ground  upon  which  we  stand  as  Catholics ;  not  as 
Romanists,  not  as  Greeks,  no  longer  as  mere  An- 
glicans, still  less  as  local  "  Episcopalians,"  but  in 
harmony  with  our  great  fundamentals,  our  minis- 
try, our  faith,  and  our  sacraments,  as  Catholics. 
Remember  that  there  is  something  more  vast, 
longer  in  time,  and  larger  in  space,  than  the 
"  Episcopal  Church "  so  called ;  that  our  Church 
as  a  national  body  must  be  in  subordination  to 
the  great  authoritative  Catholic  Church — its  views 
in  subordination  to  Her  greater  views.  Remem- 
ber that  only  that  doctrine  is  binding  upon  us  all 
which  the  whole  Church,  with  which  the  Lord 
promised  to  be,  has  set  forth ;  and  those  practices 
and  that  ritual  which  are  sympathetic,  not  with 
those  who  hate  our  fundamental  principles,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  with  whatever  has  been  uni- 
versal in  the  Church  Catholic;  and  are  sym- 
pathetic not  with  that  mere  intellectual  presence 
of  Christ  which  Protestantism  upholds,  but  with 


ANGLICAN  CHURCH  NOT  PEOTESTANT.          ^.\ 

that  real  and  actual  presence  of  Christ,  which  the 
Church  has"  claimed  and  set  forth  to  the  world 
through  all  ages,  and  which  the  Lord  Christ 
promised  to  His  Church,  and  gave  when  He  said, 
"  This  is  my  body." 


III. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  FUNDAMEN- 
TALLY DIFFERENT  FROM  THE  PROT- 
ESTANT SECTS. 

"  The  Church  of  the  Living  God."— 1  TIM.  iii.  15. 

IT  is  the  popular  impression  that  the  Anglican 
Church  took  Her  rise  about  three  hundred  years 
ago,  in  the  days  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth.  She 
is  believed  to  have  been  a  creature  of  the  Refor- 
mation, and  is  therefore  regarded  as  one  of  the 
great  sisterhood  of  the  Protestant  sects.  She  is 
looked  upon  as  agreeing  with  those  sects  in  all 
fundamental  respects,  and  differing  merely  on 
subordinate  points.  It  is  supposed  that,  to  a. 
Protestant  foundation,  She  merely  superadds  such 
matters  of  taste  as  written  prayers  instead  of  ex- 
temporaneous, the  observance  of  certain  festivals 
and  fasts,  the  use  of  clerical  garments,  a  preference 
for  Gothic  architecture,  and  for  a  ministry  in  the 
three  orders  of  Bishop,  Priest,  and  Deacon.  To 
the  inquiry,  How  the  Church  differs  from  the 
Protestant  denominations  about  her  ?  such  points 
as  the  above-mentioned  would  be  specified  in  re- 


COMPKOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         43 

ply.  It  is  not  at  all  imagined  that  fundamentally 
we  are  not  with  the  Protestant,  but  with  the  great 
Catholic  world.  It  is  not  at  all  imagined  that  the 
difference  between  us  and  all  Protestant  bodies  is 
not  superficial,  but  radical  and  irreconcilable. 

But,  Brethren,  there  are  certain,  signs  of  the 
times  that  are  very  noteworthy.  Why  is  it  that,  as 
the  Protestant  denominations  are  mutually  draw- 
ing together,  and  seeking  coalescence  in  union 
meetings  and  the  interchange  of  pulpits,  our 
Church  stands  aloof  from  the  movement  ?  "Why 
is  it,  that  if  any  of  our  Clergy,  however  few, 
coquet  with  the  movement,  the  great  body  of  our 
communicants,  both  lay  and  clerical,  rise  in  in- 
dignation ?  Why  is  it,  too,  that,  as  this  mutual 
gravitation  is  taking  place  among  the  systems  of 
Protestantism,  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
counter-movement  springing  up  in  each  of  the 
three  great  parts  of  the  Catholic  world — Greek, 
Anglican,  and  Roman — under  which  they  are 
looking  with  kindlier  eye  upon  each  other,  if  not 
actually  drawing  into  closer  sympathy?  That 
there  are  these  two  mighty  clusterings  it  were 
folly  to  ignore.  How  shall  we  account  for  them  ? 
Is  it  not  possible  that,  as  the  storm  of  the  Refor- 
mation is  subsiding,  natural  sympathies,  springing 
out  of  fundamental  agreement,  are  rising  to  re- 
sume their  sway  ? 

At  any  rate,  here  are  two  popular  misappre- 
hensions touching  our  Church,  viz. : — first,  as  to 
Her  origin,  and  secondly,  as  to  Her  position  rela- 


44  THE  FA1LUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

tively  to  the  Protestant  denominations.  It  is  to 
these  two  points  that  I  shall  direct  my  remarks 
this  evening.  In  all  fundamental  respects  our 
Church  is  neither  recent,  nor  is  She  Protestant  in 
the  popular  acceptation  of  that  term.  I  do  not, 
of  course,  deny  that  She  protests  against  certain 
errors  that  have  grown  up  in  a  territorial  portion 
of  the  great  Catholic  body  of  which  She  is  a  part ; 
but  what  I  mainly  propose  to  show  is,  not  in  what 
respect  She  differs  from  Rome,  but  in  what  respect 
She  differs  from  all  the  Protestant  denominations 
taken  together:  and,  furthermore,  to  show  that 
the  difference  between  Her  and  them  is  so  radical, 
that  any  compromise  between  the  two  is  a  logical 
impossibility. 

In  the  last  three  hundred  years  theological 
matters  have  become  confused  by  a  mass  of  doc- 
trinal detail ;  and  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that,  in 
the  confusion,  the  ordinary  mind  should  lose  sight 
of  the  few  main  points  that,  after  all,  really  cause 
us  to  part  asunder.  It  is  well,  therefore,  to  with- 
draw at  times  into  a  calm  distance  where  the  de- 
tails shall  disappear  from  the  vision,  and  the  main 
distinctions  come  boldly  out  to  view.  Permit  me, 
Beloved,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  to  call  the  system 
to  which  we  adhere  by  the  name  under  which  it 
is  known  among  us,  viz.,  "  The  Church ; "  and  to 
call  the  bodies  collectively,  who  agree  with  us  in 
so  far  as  we  protest  against  Romish  errors,  but 
who  differ  with  us  in  so  far  as  we  Churchmen 
hold  with  Rome  to  the  great  underlying  truths  of 


COMPROMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         4.5 

the  Catholic  Church,  by  the  title  of  "  The  De- 
nominations," or  "  The  Protestant  Sects." 

Before  I  proceed  to  our  first  head,  namely, 
The  Origin  of  the  Church,  let  me  ask  you  to  re- 
call sundry  matters  which  are  patent  to  the  eye, 
in  which  the  Church  differs  from  the  Denomina- 
tions ;  for  instance,  the  internal  structure  of  our 
houses  of  worship,  the  arrangement  of  our  chan- 
cels, so  different  from  the  ordinary  Protestant 
plan  of  pulpit,  with  sofa  behind  and  Commun- 
ion-Table  below,  the  constitution  of  our  ministry 
in  three  orders,  the  fact  that  we  have  no  revivals, 
etc.  And  to  ask  you  whether  all  this,  and  more, 
ought  not  at  least  to  raise  a  suspicion,  before  we 
commence,  that  there  must  be,  underneath,  some 
radical  variance  between  the  two  systems.  Can 
it  be  that  two  systems,  so  differing  to  the  eye,  are 
fundamentally  at  one  with  each  other  ?  Let  us 
see.  I  proceed,  then,  to  strike  the  clear,  distin- 
guishing note  of  the  Church. 

I.  "When  did  the  Church  arise  ?  In  order  to 
see  that  She  did  not  take  Her  origin  at  the  same 
time  with  the  sects,  in  the  days  of  King  Henry 
VIII. ,  permit  me  to  give  a  brief  history  of  the 
Church  Catholic  from  the  first. 

The  Holy  Apostles  did  not  separate  and  go 
forth  to  plant  the  Church  in  all  the  world  imme- 
diately after  the  Ascension  of  our  Lord.  The 
popular  impression  is  that  they  did.  But  if  you 
will  turn  to  your  'New  Testament,  you  will  find 
that  the  Twelve  remained  residing  at  Jerusalem 


46  THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

for  twenty  years  after  that  event.  During  this 
period  they  preached  to  Jews,  not  to  Gentiles. 
The  Grecians  spoken  of  in  the  sixth  chapter  of 
the  Acts,  were  not  Gentiles ;  they  were  Jews  who 
spoke  the  Greek  tongue.  During  this  long  period 
of  twenty  years,  the  adherents  of  Christ  continued 
to  be  members  of  the  Jewish  Church,  superadding 
Christian  observances  in  their  own  gatherings. 
Meantime,  a  model  form  of  the  Christian  Church 
grew  up  in  Jerusalem  under  the  combined  hands 
of  the  Apostles,  with  Ministry,  the  Sacraments, 
the  Faith,  and  a  regular  Form  of  "Worship.  The 
Liturgy  was  not  committed  to  writing,  but  was 
memorized. 

Some  years  after  the  Ascension,  the  conver- 
sion of  St.  Paul  occurred ;  and  it  was  toward  the 
latter  part  of  the  above-mentioned  period  of  twen- 
ty years,  that  he  went  forth  into  Asia  Minor,  and 
preached  not  only  to  Jews  resident  there,  but  also 
to  Gentiles.  This  gathering  of  Gentiles  as  well 
as  Jews  into  Christianity,  precipitated  a  crisis, 
both  in  the  action  of  the  Apostles  and  in  the 
career  of  the  Church ;  for,  in  the  new  bodies  of 
converts  which  St.  Paul  gathered,  there  speedily 
arose  a  contention.  The  Jewish  converts  insisted 
that  the  Gentile  converts,  in  addition  to  their 
Christian  duties,  should  comply  with  the  require- 
ments of  the  Mosaic  ritual  law.  It  was  held  that 
that  law  had  been  given  in  all  its  minutiae  by  God 
Himself,  and  that  all  who  believed  in  the  true  God 
must,  of  course,  obey  it.  At  last  St.  Paul  goes 


COMPEOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         47 

down  to  Jerusalem,  where  tlie  other  Apostles 
were  living,  that  this  question  (which,  you  will 
observe,  w^as  one  of  the  gravest  importance)  might 
be  settled  by  them.  The  Council  of  Jerusalem, 
an  account  of  which  is  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
the  Acts,  met,  and  decided  the  matter.  The  vir- 
tual conclusion  reached  was  this,  viz. :  that  the 
whole  Jewish  form  of  the  Church  had,  after  all, 
been  fulfilled  by  the  Life,  Death,  Resurrection, 
and  Ascension  of  our  Lord ;  that  it  no  longer  had 
any  real  existence ;  and  that  the  Christian  form 
of  the  Church  had  taken  its  place.  This  occurred 
about  the  year  50  or  52.  Thus,  it  was  not  till 
twenty  years  after  the  Ascension  that  the  Apostles, 
arousing  to  their  newly-seen  responsibilities,  sepa- 
rated, and  went  forth  to  their  great  work  of  plant- 
ing the  Church  Catholic  in  all  the  world. 

The  Church  which  they  planted  was  identical 
everywhere,  from  Spain  and  England  in  the  West, 
to  Syria  in  the  East ; — identical  in  its  Ministry,  its 
Form  of  Government,  its  Sacraments,  its  Faith, 
and  Liturgical  mode  of  Worship.  It  is  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Apostles,  having  once 
separated  to  this  work,  never  afterward  met  to- 
gether again  for  consultation.  And  yet  such  was 
the  Church  they  planted.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
century,  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  second,  it 
rears  itself  everywhere  before  us  as  a  vast  visible 
body.  Everywhere  it  has  its  Bishops,  Priests, 
and  Deacons ;  its  Liturgies,*  its  Creed,  its  Chan- 

*  It  should  be  noted  that  the  Apostles  did  not  leave  only  one 


48  THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

eels,  its  Altars,  its  Festivals  and  Fasts,  and  its 
Sacraments.  Everywhere  its  Bishops  are  the 
only  persons  empowered  to  ordain  to  the  Minis- 
try. How  happens  it  that  the  Apostles,  who 
never  afterward  met  together,  should  yet  have 
planted  a  Church  identical  in  every  main  point 
all  over  Europe,  Civilized  Asia,  and  Africa  ? 
The  fact  is,  they  each  and  all  carried  away  in 
their  minds  the  model  form  which  had  during 
the  twenty  years  grown  up  under  their  combined 
hands  in  Jerusalem ;  and  that  they,  each  and  all, 
planted  the  Church  Catholic  everywhere  in  gen- 
eral accordance  with  that  model  form. 

But  what,  furthermore,  was  the  condition  of 
this  Church  Catholic  ?  Everywhere  it  was  One ; 
but  the  Church  in  each  nation  was  independent 
of  the  Church  in  any  other  nation ;  could  ordain 
or  discipline  Her  own  clergy ;  could  make  Her 
own  Canon  Laws  and  arrange  Her  Liturgy  in  the 
vernacular  of  Her  own  people.  When  a  man 
moved  from  Italy  to  Spain,  or  from  Egypt  to 
Greece  or  to  England,  he  only  moved  out  of  one 
National  Branch  into  another  of  the  same  Church 
Catholic.  Thus  like  some  vast  banyan-tree  the 
Church  was  one  organism,  but  with  an  indepen- 

«form  of  Liturgy  behind  them  in  the  Universal  Church,  nor  yet 
twelve  different  forms ;  but,  strange  to  say,  four  forms.  These 
forms  contained  nearly  identical  parts,  but  differed  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  those  parts ;  one  arrangement  prevailing  in  Syria  and  the 
East,  the  second  in  Egypt  and  Northeastern  Africa,  the  third  in 
Italy  and  Northwestern  Africa,  and  the  fourth  in  Asia  Minor, 
Gaul,  and  Britain. 


COMPEOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         49 

dent  trunk  in  each  country.  Her  condition  was 
analogous,  indeed,  to  that  of  the  United  States. 
Rhode  Island,  for  instance,  is  independent  of  New 
York.  It  can  make  its  own  laws  and  elect  its 
own  officers  without  dictation  from  the  Governor 
and  Legislature  of  New  York ;  and  yet  both 
States  are  a  part  of  one  Country.  There  are  local 
peculiarities  in  each,  but  the  same  general  charac- 
teristics. 

Now,  Apostles  and  apostolic  men  planted  the 
Church  Catholic  in  Rome,  in  Thessaly,  in  Gaul, 
in  Egypt,  in  Britain.  The  National  Branch  of 
the  Catholic  Church  planted  in  Britain  in  the 
first  century  was,  in  a  certain  sense,  independent 
of  the  National  Branch  of  the  Church  Catholic 
that  was  in  Rome,  and  was  its  ,peer ;  less  in 
wealth,  less  in  influence,  less  in  the  mental  ability 
of  its  Clergy  perhaps,  but  endowed  with  the  self- 
same rights.*  This  mutual  independence  of  the 
National  parts  of  the  Catholic  Church  lasted  for 
centuries  after  the  Apostolic  days.  But  at  last, 
about  the  seventh  century,  the  National  Branch 

*  When  Gregory  I,  Bishop  of  Rome  A.  D.  596,  sent  Augustine 
to  England,  the  latter  sought  to  bring  the  British  Bishops  into 
subjection  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  A  Conference  was  at  length 
held,  at  which  Dunod,  a  Bishop,  speaking  in  behalf  of  his  brethren, 
returned  the  following  reply  to  St.  Augustine,  viz. :  "  We  are  bound 
to  serve  the  Church  of  God  ;  and  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  every 
godly  Christian,  as  far  as  helping  them  in  offices  of  love  and 
charity ;  this  service  we  are  ready  to  pay  ;  but  more  than  this  I  do 
not  know  to  be  due  to  him  or  any  other.  We  have  a  Primate  of 
our  own,  who  is  to  oversee  us  under  God,  and  to  keep  us  in  the 
way  of  spiritual  life." 
3 


50      THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

of  the  Church  in  Rome  began  to  usurp  power  over 
its  neighbors  in  the  West  of  Europe,  to  take  away 
their  independence,  to  fix  its  own  laws,  worship, 
customs,  and  officers  upon  them.  Novel  doctrines 
began  also  to  grow  up  in  Rome,  superadding  them- 
selves to  Her  Catholic  system.  And  in  due  time 
She  spread  those  doctrines  also  through  the  Na- 
tional Branches  She  had  subjugated.  She  threw 
Pier  yoke  upon  the  Catholic  Church  in  England. 
She  tried  to  throw  Her  yoke  also  upon  the  numer- 
ous National  Branches  in  the  Eastern  part  of 
Europe ;  but  never  succeeded  in  this  attempt.  In 
England,  however,  as  I  have  said,  after  a  brave 
struggle  on  the  part  of  the  British  Bishops,  She 
succeeded ;  and  for  several  centuries  the  Catholic 
Church  in  England,  though  of  right  independent, 
autonomic,  was  in  the  same  position  under  Rome 
that  Rhode  Island  would  be,  if  for  a  while  its 
large,  wealthy,  and  powerful  neighbor,  New  York, 
should  reduce  it  to  dependency,  give  it  its  laws, 
its  judges,  and  other  officers. 

But  in  Henry  the  Eighth's  time  the  National 
Branch  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  England  suc- 
ceeded in  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  Rome,  and 
stood  once  more  independent,  reinstated  in  Her 
original  position,  rehabilitated  with  the  rights 
which,  a  few  centuries  before,  She  had  lost.  It  is 
immaterial  whether  the  motives  of  Henry  were 
conscientious  or  not ;  God  rnaketh  the  wrath  of 
the  wicked  to  praise  Him,  and  Henry's  quarrel 


COMPEOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          5^ 

with  Clement  was  the  subjugated  Church's  oppor- 
tunity in  England. 

Using  Her  regained  rights,  Her  clergy  and 
laity  pruned  and  translated  Her  liturgy,  reformed 
Her  customs,  and  abolished  from  Her  the  novel 
and  Romish  doctrines  that  had  been  temporarily 
added  to  Her  Catholic  system.  She  remained 
still  the  same  old  National  Branch  of  the  Church 
that  had  come  down  in  England  from  the  Apostles' 
days ;  She  had  simply  removed  from  Her  Catholic 
structure  the  incrustations  of  Romish  errors.  Sup- 
pose a  free  man  had,  at  one  period  of  his  life,  been 
enslaved  by  a  powerful  neighbor,  and  had  subse- 
quently thrown  off  the  yoke,  why  one  might  as 
well  say  that  that  man  is  not  the  same  individual 
through  it  all,  but  that  he  only  began  to  exist 
from  the  moment  he  regained  his  freedom,  as  to 
say  that  the  Catholic  Church  in  England  took  the 
origin  of  Her  existence  at  the  time  of  Henry  the 
Eighth. 

Understand,  that  it  is  one  thing  utterly  to 
destroy  the  National  Branch  of  the  Church  Catho- 
lic in  a  country  and  construct  a  new  Christian  or- 
ganism in  its  place  ;  but  it  is  another  and  a  very 
different  thing  to  take  the  same  old  Church  Cath- 
olic that  is  found  in  a  nation,  and  merely  remove 
from  it  such  novel  doctrines  and  improper  customs 
as  may  have  grown  up  within  it,  or  been  forced 
upon  it.  The  former  is  what  was  done  on  the 
Continent ;  the  latter  is  what  was  done  in  Eng- 
land. Thus  the  Continental  and  the  English  Ret- 


52  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

ormations  were  conducted  on  a  different  prin- 
ciple each  from  the  other.  The  one  was  destruc- 
tive of  Catholic  truth  and  the  Catholic  Church, 
the  other  was  preservative  of  both. 

In  the  old  colonial  times  of  our  country,  the 
English  branch  of  the  old  Catholic  Church,  act- 
*ing  according  to  the  law  of  Catholic  growth,  put 
forth  a  branch  into  this  country.  And  when,  as 
the  result  of  the  American  Revolution,  England 
and  America  became  independent  nations,  the 
Church  in  this  country  became,  ipso  facto,  a  na- 
tional and  independent  trunk  of  the  one  Catholic 
Church  in  all  the  world. 

Alas,  that  the  fifteen  or  twenty  gentlemen 
who  met  in  the  general  convention  immediately 
after  the  Revolution,  and  at  the  opening  of  the 
independence  of  the  American  Catholic  Church, 
should  have  left  us  as  a  heritage  that  unfortunate 
title  "  Protestant  Episcopal."  For,  what  does  the 
word  "  Protestant "  indicate  to  the  popular  mind  ? 
Why,  in  general  terms,  a  violent  opposition  to  all 
that  is  Catholic.  The  word  does  not  express, 
therefore,  our  attitude.  For  we  adhere  to,  we 
cherish  with  undying  fondness,  much  that  is  in 
the  Romish  Church  which  Protestantism  hates 
and  has  abolished.  We  simply  protest  against 
certain  of  Her  features,  so  that  the  title  "  Protes- 
tant," as  applied  to  us,  does  not  mean  the  same 
as  when  applied  to  the  Denominations,  and  the 
popular  mind  is  misled  in  regard  to  us.  Again, 
the  term  "  Episcopal "  simply  refers  to  our  Church 


COMPROMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          53 

Government.  Thus  the  whole  title,  "  Protestant 
Episcopal,"  selects  only  two  out  of  very  many  of 
our  characteristics  (and  those  two  by  no  means  the 
most  important),  and  elevates  them  into  the  prom- 
inence of  an  exhaustive  designation  for  the  whole. 
"Why,  brethren,  you  might  as  well  call  New  York 
an  "Anti-Mormon  Gubernatorial  State,"  and 
fancy  that  you  have  thoroughly  denned  your  Com- 
monwealth, as  to  dream  for  an  instant  that  the 
title  "  Protestant  Episcopal "  is,  ever  was,  or  ever 
could  be,  a  befitting  name  for  the  great  American 
fraction  of  the  One  Holy  Catholic  Church  in  all 
the  world.  But,  thank  God,  the  fifteen  or  twenty 
wise  gentlemen  who,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
took  such  action  as  has  resulted  in  foisting  this 
heritage  of  "  Protestant  Episcopal "  as  a  title  upon 
nearly  forty  vast  dioceses  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, were  not  permitted  by  the  Catholic  Church 
elsewhere  to  carry  out  their  intentions  of  laying 
violent  hands  upon  the  Creed  itself.  Thank  God 
that  that  Creed  does  not  read,  "I  believe  in  the 
Holy  P.  E.  Church  of  the  U.  S.  A."  Thank  God 
that  it  still  reads  as  of  old,  "  I  believe  One  Catho- 
lic and  Apostolic  Church.  I  acknowledge  one 
Baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins ;  and  I  look  for 
the  Resurrection  of'  the  dead,  and  the  Life  of  the 
world  to  come." 

Thus  the  English  Catholic  Church,  known  as 
the  Church  of  England,  did  not  with  the  sects 
take  Her  origin  in  the  Reformation.  She  merely 
succeeded  in  disenthralling  herself  at  that  stormy 


54:  THE  FAILURE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

period.  She  is  an  ancient  Branch  of  the  Church 
Catholic,  having  a  continuous  life  running  down 
from  the  apostolic  days  to  the  present  time ;  pre- 
serving, all  along,  Catholic  features  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Church  visible,  Her  Ministry,  Her  Faith, 
Her  Sacraments,  Her  Seasons,  Her  Liturgical  Wor- 
ship ;  free  during  the  first  six  centuries,  then  en- 
slaved by  Rome  for  a  while,  then  striking  for  and 
regaining  her  freedom  again,  which  She  has  en- 
joyed now  for  the  last  three  centuries.  She  still 
agrees  with  the  Roman,  the  Greek,  the  Armenian, 
and  other  parts  of  the  Church  in  all  fundamental 
Catholic  respects,  and  differs  from  the  Roman  part 
in  respect  of  certain  errors,  which  added  them- 
selves to  Her  Catholic  system  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  middle  ages  and  in  the  year  1854. 

Thus  the  Church,  instead  of  being  fundamen- 
tally Protestant,  that  is  to  say,  constructed  on 
Protestant  notions,  and  merely  bearing  a  little 
about  Her  on  Her  surface  that  looks  like  the  "  visi- 
ble," the  "  priestly,"  the  "  Sacramental,"  and  the 
"  Catholic,"  is,  on  the  other  hand,  fundamen- 
tally, and  has  been  continuously,  Catholic,  while 
such  Protestantism  as  She  has  is  a  temporary  ex- 
pression, which  She  has  been  forced  to  put  on  at 
this  period  of  Her  long  career,  in  censure  of  errors 
into  which  a  portion  (numerically  a  half,  perhaps) 
of  the  great  Body  of  which  She  is  a  part  has  fallen, 
as  She  trusts  only  temporarily.  Thus  you  will 
see  that,  after  all,  the  cause  and  the  main  object 
of  Her  existence  is  not  to  protest  against  those 


COMPROMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          55 

temporary  errors  (although  she  does  that  by  the 
way),  but  it  is  the  rather  to  continue  to  hold  and 
to  spread,  as  formerly,  so  now  and  to  all  future 
time,  the  great  principles  of  the  Church  Yisible, 
of  Catholic  Truth  and  Apostolic  Order. 

She  belongs  to  the  great  Catholic  Sisterhood. 
One  erring  sister  has  brought  grief  to  the  house- 
hold. But  She  looks  upon  that  sister,  and,  as  She 
marks  the  familiar  lineaments  of  the  family,  She 
cannot  hate  her;  She  grieves  over  the  errors. 
She  looks  within  herself,  and  finds  that  all  is  not 
perfect  even  there ;  She  prays  for  her  prodigal 
Sister,  and  She  is  beginning  to  pray  for  herself 
also.  Far  be  it  from  Her  ever  to  abandon  the 
family  of  which  She  is  a  member,  and  take  up 
Her  portion  beneath  the  fleeting  tents  of  a  hard, 
a  hostile,  and  a  wayward  tribe !  God  speed  the 
day  when  all  the  fair  Sisters,  Greek,  Roman,  Ar- 
menian, English,  Russian,  and  American,  shall 
abandon  such  mistakes  as  either  may  have  fallen 
into,  shall  learn  that  no  fraction  can  be  the  whole 
body,  and  shall  stand,  with  arms  intertwined,  a 
one  harmonious  Catholic  family  once  more  ! 

When  the  two  great  clusterings,  Protestant 
and  Catholic,  shall  have  completed  themselves, 
the  one  organic  like  an  army,  the  other  disin- 
tegrated like  a  mob,  and  the  shock  between  the 
two  shall  take  place,  can  any  one  doubt  the  issue  ? 

II.  I  come  now  to  the  second  point,  viz. :  The 
Anglican  Church  being  regarded  by  the  popular 


56  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

mind  as  fundamentally  one  of  the  Protestant 
sects.  Let  me  recall  to  you  what  I  said  above, 
namely :  that  it  is  my  object  to  set  forth  wherein 
it  is  that  the  Church  differs  in  fundamental  doc- 
trine from  all  the  Denominations  taken  together. 
Is  there  the  radical  difference  I  speak  of?  If  so, 
does  it  lie  in  the  mere  question  of  written  or  ex- 
temporaneous prayers,  of  baptism  by  pouring  or 
by  submersion,  of  whether  or  not  it  is  Scriptural 
to  baptize  infants,  of  Church  Government  ?  Oh 
no.  These  are  all  questions  of  some  importance, 
but  they  are  superficial  in  the  comparison.  Can 
we  or  can  we  not  go  down  beneath  these  to  some 
one  point  where,  to  start  with,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  sects  is  so  radical,  that, 
after  all,  any  subsequent  compromise  between  the 
two  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare  to  both  ?  If  there 
be  such  a  point,  the  plain  man,  who  has  little  or 
no  time  to  study  into  numerous  and  nice  super- 
ficial theological  distinctions,  would  like,  of  course, 
to  know  what  it  is,  that  he  may  be  settled  in  his 
main  religious  position.  All  these  differences  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  Denominations  which 
are  apparent  to  the  eye,  for  instance,  as  to  Church 
Government,  forms  of  worship,  observance  or  non- 
observance  of  Feasts  and  Fasts,  Infant  Baptism, 
etc.,  are,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  bewildering 
branches  and  twigs,  in  which  the  plain  man  finds 
himself  entangled.  My  point  is,  that  these  branch- 
es and  twigs,  in  fact  all  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Church,  spring  out  of  the  answer  to  a  prior  ques- 


COMPEOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         57 

tion.  If  that  question  be  decided  one  way,  we 
are  carried  into  the  entire  Churchl y  set  of  branch- 
es in  doctrine  and  practice ;  if  the  other  way,  we 
are  carried  into  the  Protestant  set  of  branches. 
Surely  it  is  an  important  point  gained  toward 
clearing  up  the  complicated  matter  to  our  minds, 
and  virtually  disposing  of  a  hundred-and-one  sub- 
ordinate questions,  if  we  can  go  down  from  the 
branches  to  the  two  great  trunks,  the  Churchly 
and  the  Protestant,  and  then  get  back  to  the  root, 
and  see,  if  possible,  exactly  where  and  why  it  is 
that  the  two  great  trunks  themselves  part  com- 
pany. 

Now,  the  great  question,  which  in  itself  alone 
divides  us  from  all  Protestant  sects,  is  the  all-im- 
portant question,  What  is  Election?  This  lies 
down  under  the  surface ;  but  this  is  it.  And  as 
we  give  one  or  the  other  answer  to  this  question, 
What  is  Election?  so  do  we  consistently  decide 
one  or  the  other  way  on  all  subsequent  questions. 

Now,  the  Protestant  idea  is  that  Election  is 
of  individuals  directly  to  life  eternal.  Thus  with 
Protestants  "  the  elect  are  identical  with  the 
finally  saved."  Protestant  Denominations  may 
differ  among  themselves  as  to  the  extent  of  Elec- 
tion, as  to  the  limitation  or  universality  of  the 
Atonement  as  a  potential  means  of  salvation  ; 
they  may  differ  as  to  the  distinctness  of  the 
boundaries  between  the  elect  and  all  others ;  they 
may  differ  very  much  as  to  the  causality  of  Elec- 
tion in  the  Divine  Mind,  that  is  to  say,  whether 
3* 


58  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

persons  are  elected  by  God's  absolute  and  irre- 
spective sovereignty,  or  whether  (as  the  Method- 
ists say)  their  election  was,  so  to  speak,  influ- 
enced in  the  Divine  Mind  by  their  foreseen 
personal  actions  as  free  beings  (God's  Foreknowl- 
edge not  affecting  their  acts,  any  more  than  one 
man's  observing  another's  falling  causes  his  fall) ; 
they  may  differ  as  to  whether  God  has  reprobated 
the  non-elect  or  not;  but  they  all  agree  as  to 
the  ideality  of  election ;  that  is  to  say,  that  it  is 
of  individuals,  and  that  its  immediate  design  is 
eternal  life.  And  if  you  would  test  this,  ask  any 
Methodist,  or  Calvinistic  Baptist,  or  Free-Will 
Baptist,  or  Orthodox  Congregationalist,  or  Pres- 
byterian (New  School  or  Old  School,  Supra-lap- 
sarian  or  Sub-lapsarian),  ".Will  any  of  the  elect 
be  lost  and  damned?"  And,  unless  I  mistake 
very  much,  they  will  one  and  all  say,  "  ~No  !  It 
were  dreadful  to  imagine  such  a  thing  for  an  in- 
stant ! " 

But  the  view  of  the  Church,  as  expressed  in 
Her  prayers  and  offices,  and  homilies,  and  in  Her 
XYIIth  Article,  is  radically  different  from  all 
this.  And  Her  view  gives  to  Her  whole  theology 
a  different  character.  By  reflex  light  it  shines 
back  upon  Christ  and  upon  God,  and  shows  Them 
under  a  very  different  aspect  to  the  world.  It 
gives  to  Her  whole  presentment  of  Christianity  a 
different  cast,  and  it  leads  Her  into  a  vastly  dif- 
ferent treatment  of  the  sinner.  Do  you  ask  why  it 
is  that  we  have  no  revivals  ?  The  answer  is,  be- 


COMPEOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          59 

cause  of  our  view  of  Election ;  they  are  foreign  to 
our  whole  system;  nay,  destructive  of  it.  Do 
you  ask,  "Why  we  baptize  infants?  The  answer 
is,  because  of  our  view  of  Election.  Do  you  ask, 
Why  we  have  a  ministry  in  three  orders,  Why  we 
have  a  ritualistic  form  of  worship,  Why  our  Altars 
and  not  our  pulpits  are  the  prominent  objects  in 
our  churches?  The  answer  is,  because  of  our 
view  of  Election.  What  is  that  view?  I  will 
give  it  to  you. 

The  Church  holds  that  "  Christ  came  to  intro- 
duce a  new  state  of  things  on  earth,  a  Kingdom 
of  G-od ;  that  He  came  not  merely  to  found  a  re- 
ligion.; not  merely  to  make  an  Atonement  for 
individual  sinners,  but  to  establish  a  Kingdom  of 
which  He  was  to  be  the  King.  And  it  was  to  be 
more  than  a  Kingdom.  It  was  to  be  the  Church ; 
a  company  of  men  not  only  believing  in  Him  but 
also  baptized  into  His  Body.  And  these  persons, 
so  blessed,  were  not  merely  to  be  under  Him  as 
their  King,  or  instructed  by  Him  as  their  Prophet, 
or  reconciled  through  Him  as  their  Priest,  or  in- 
dividually to  apprehend  Him  as  their  Sacrifice ; 
but  over  and  above  all  these  things  they  were  to 
be  supernaturally  joined  to  Him  by  a  union  so 
intimate,  so  entire  and  real,  that  it  could  only  be 
illustrated  by  the  union  that  subsists  between  the 
limbs  of  a  human  body  and  its  head,  or  between 
a  vine  and  the  branches  that  form  a  part  of  it ;"  * 

*  The  writer  has  taken  liberties  with  the  above  extract  from 
Sadler,  in  the  way  of  adding  to  the  language  for  greater  fulness 
of  expression,  not  in  the  way  of  altering  the  sense. 


(JO  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

a  union,  I  say,  which,  though  supernatural,  is 
yet  real  and  not  merely  abstract;  a  union  not 
like  that  which  subsists  between  two  consent- 
ing friends,  but  rather  analogous  to  that  which 
subsists  between  Adam  and  all  who  have  de- 
rived their  nature  from  him.  So  that  Christ's 
Body  Natural  grows  out,  as  it  were,  by  the  addi- 
tion of  those  who  are  thus  made  one  with  Him, 
and  becomes  His  Body  Mystical.  Christ,  and  His 
Church  Catholic  are  all  one  ;  we  are  the  branches 
and  He  is  the  whole  Yine.  Christ  is  that  Stone, 
spoken  of  by  Daniel,  "  Cut  out  without  hands 
.  that  became  a  great  mountain  and 
filled  the  whole  earth."  The  Church  holds  that 
the  means  by  which  God  unites  separate  men  to 
this  great  Body  Mystical  of  Christ,  so  that  they 
are  buried  in  Christ,  is  Baptism.*  Baptism  is 
with  Her  no  mere  form,  but  an  amazing  reality. 
She  holds,  therefore,  that  Election  is  into  the  Body 
Mystical,  is  into  high  ecclesiastical  privileges  on 
earth,  which,  if  they  are  used  rightly,  will  enable 
a  man  to  reach  life  eternal  hereafter ;  but  which, 

*  The  Holy  Spirit,  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  fell  not  on  indi- 
viduals as  such,  but  on  the  Body  of  the  Church.  This  indwelling 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  makes  the  Church  something  different 
from  a  mere  company  of  men ;  makes  It  to  be  an  object  of  faith. 
"  We  do  not  simply  believe  that  there  are  persons  who  call  them- 
selves Christians;  this  is  a  fact  which  even  the  heathen  know. 
We  believe  beyond  this  that  all  members  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church  are  joined  together  in  one  unseen  Body  by  the  Presence 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  this  Body  being  one  with  Christ,  being  His 
own  Body  Mystical. 


COMPKOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          £1 

on  the  other  hand,  if  they  are  not  used  rightly, 
will  not  insure  him  salvation.  While,  therefore, 
the  Protestant  idea  is  that  the  elect  are  identical 
with  the  finally  saved,  the  Church's  idea  is  that 
"the  elect  are  identical  with  the  baptized;"  that 
Election  has,  therefore,  only  mediate  and  not  im- 
mediate reference  to  everlasting  salvation,  since 
some  of  the  Baptized  will  be  saved  and  some  will 
not. 

For  we  claim  that  God's  great  Church  is  one 
and  continuous,  not  merely  from  Christ,  but  from 
the  Fall  itself  down  to  the  present  time ;  that  it 
was  first  Patriarchal  in  form,  then  Jewish,  and 
finally  Christian ;  that  the  scheme  of  Election  (if 
I  may  be  permitted  to  use  such  a  phrase)  was 
adopted  at  the  Call  of  Abraham ;  that  the  Jews 
were  God's  elect  people,  some  of  them  making 
their  calling  and  election  sure  by  using  their  high 
ecclesiastical  privileges  and  helps  aright,  while 
others  failed  to  do  so,  and  failed,  therefore,  of  the 
ultimate  though  not  immediate  end  of  their  elec- 
tion. We  claim  that,  when  God  changed  the  form 
of  His  Church  visible,  from  Jewish  to  Christian, 
from  National  to  Catholic,  He  did  not  change 
His  idea  of  Election.  The  Aaronic  ministry  was 
changed  to  the  Apostolic ;  the  bloody  features  of 
the  Church's  Altar  were  stricken  out,  leaving  only 
the  bread  and  wine,*  "  the  meat-offering  and  the 

*  The  altar  became  a  new  power  under  the  hand  of  Christ,  for 
He  gave  to  it  His  Real  Presence,  with  which  it  had  never  been 
endowed  before. 


62      THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM 

drink-offering ; "  circumcision  was  changed  to  bap- 
tism ;  but  God's  Elect  were  still  the  members  of 
His  Church,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent.  We  claim 
that,  as  in  Jewish  times,  so  now,  God  calls  upon 
His  Elect,  each  and  all,  to  make  their  Election 
sure  by  using  their  privileges  and  divinely-given 
helps  in  the  Church  aright ;  we  claim  that  as  the 
Jews,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  were  addressed 
as  the  Elect,  so  likewise  the  Apostles  addressed 
all  the  members  of  the  Ephesian,  the  Corinthian, 
the  Roman,  the  Philippian  and  the  Colossian 
Church,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  as  the  Elect ; 
and  furthermore,  that  the  Bible  warns  us,  that 
every  individual  branch  in  Christ  that  beareth 
not  fruit,  although  in  Christ,  although  baptized 
into  His  Body,  although  of  the  Elect,  will  be  cut 
off  eventually  and  not  attain  to  salvation.  "We 
claim,  therefore,  that  the  Church,  the  great  Catho- 
lic Body  Mystical,  the  divinely-given  means  of  as- 
sistance, is  a  most  important  factor,  bearing  upon 
the  salvation  of  souls ;  important  because  to  be 
grafted  into  it  by  baptism  is  to  be  grafted  into 
Christ ;  important,  from  the  aids  it  renders  the 
sinner  by  its  Rites,  Ordinances,  Ministry,  and 
Sacraments,  as  he  toils  along  his  hard  way  toward 
salvation.  With  us,  therefore,  Election  is  gen- 
eric;* the  Election  is  the  body  of  the  Churcli 

*  "  Furthermore,"  says  the  XVIIth  Article,  "  we  must  receive 
God's  promises  in  such  wise  as  they  be  generally  set  forth  to  us  in 
Holy  Scripture."  Generally,  \.  e.  not,  "For  the  most  part,"  but, 
as  opposed  to  particularly  or  individually  ;  not  usually,  but  uni- 


COMPKOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         #3 

Catholic.  With  the  Protestant  sects,  Election  is 
individual. 

You  sometimes  hear  the  phrase,  "  E"o  church 
without  a  Bishop."  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  this. 
But  I  would  direct  your  attention  away  from  this 
as  a  superficial  point,  and  beneath  it  to  this  ques- 
tion of  Election,  as  after  all  the  Articulus  Eccle- 
sioB  stantis  vel  cadentis. 

Now,  whichever  side  is  right — and  I  do  not 
propose  to  discuss  this  point — you  cannot  fail  to 
perceive  at  once  that  here  is  a  very  radical  differ- 
ence between  the  two ;  a  difference  in  accordance 
with  which  a  hundred  and  one  subsequent  ques- 
tions are  decided — the  question  of  the  ministry, 
the  question  of  the  sacraments,  the  entire  question 
of  the  Church  Visible.  For,  if  Election  be  of  sep- 
arate individuals  to  life  eternal,  irrespective  of 
any  ecclesiastical  means,  what  do  you  want  of  a 
great  Visible  Church  Catholic  on  earth,  with  its 
regular  Apostolic  Ministry,  with  its  Kites,  with 
its  identical  Life  running  all  the  way  through 
time,  God-given  and  Divine  ?  That  Church  dis- 
appears at  once  from  your  necessities.  She  is  no 
longer  needed  with  Her  baptism  as  a  medium  of 
union  between  the  Sinner  and  Christ,  and  Her 
Eucharist  as  a  life-nourisher.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  idea  of  a  Church  invisible,  consisting 
of  all  holy  persons  in  all  denominations,  and  even 

vcrsally,  or  better,  genetically  ;  that  is  to  say,  as  concerning  classes 
of  persons.  The  word  employed  in  the  Latin  form  of  the  Article 
is  generaliter,  not  plerumquc. 


(54:  THE  FAILURE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

out  of  them,  takes  Her  place.  I  say  "  out  of 
them ;  "  for  Holy  Baptism  is  either  what  I  have 
designated  it,  an  amazing  reality,  or  else  it  is 
nothing.  Under  the  Protestant  idea  of  Elec- 
tion it  becomes  immaterial  to  the  individual,  ex- 
cept from  policy  or  taste's  sake,  what  form  of 
Church  organization  he  adopts.  For,  at  any  rate, 
he  is  elected,  aside  from  any  earthly  appliances, 
directly  to  salvation.  If  the  Methodists  deny 
this,  then  with  them  Election  amounts  to  nothing 
at  all ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  Election.  But 
alas  for  this ;  the  whole  Bible,  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament, is  full  of  an  Election,  a  selection  of  some 
kind.  While  to  us  the  whole  earthly  appliance 
of  the  Church  is  no  mere  matter  of  taste,  but  is 
divinely  given  as  the  best  possible  means  for 
man's  assistance  and  is  therefore  sacred ;  to  the 
Protestant  a  visible  form  of  the  Church  becomes 
a  matter  of  mere  human  propriety.  In  his  in- 
tense individualism,  all  organizations  as  Protes- 
tant corporate  bodies  are  logically  unnecessary. 
It  becomes  immaterial  whether  he  has  the  Apos- 
tolic line  of  ministerial  succession  or  not.  All 
that  is  really  wanted  is  for  some  one,  whether  or- 
dained at  all  or  not  makes  no  difference,  to  tell 
the  sinner  "  to  come  to  Christ "  in  some  indefinite 
way.  If  he  is  elect,  he  will  be  saved ;  if  he  is  not 
elect,  all  the  Church  Catholics,  and  all  the  di- 
vinely-given Ministries  and  Sacraments  in  the 
world  will  not  mend  the  matter  a  whit  for  him. 
Thus  the  whole  Protestant  system  of  individual- 


COMPEOMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          (35 

ism,  with  its  destruction  of  the  Church  and  Her 
Ministry  and  Rites  and  Ways,  takes  the  place  of 
the  great  Catholic  idea  of  the  organic  Church,  as 
a  part  of  God's  plan  wrought  out  in  Christ  to 
help  the  sinner  in  making  his  calling  and  election 
sure.  With  us  the  Church  comes  in  as  a  medium 
of  union  with  Christ ;  with  the  Protestant  as  an 
interference. 

For  fifteen  hundred  years  after  Christ  there 
had  been  four  factors  in  the  scheme  of  salvation, 
viz. :  God,  the  God-man  Christ,  His  Body  Mys- 
tical or  Church,  and  the  sinner.  The  sinner 
was,  by  baptism,  grafted  into  the  Body  Mystical 
or  Church,  and  thus  made  one  with  Christ; 
and  by  the  Holy  Eucharist  fed  with  Him;  and 
being  one  with  the  Son,  was  made  one  with  the 
Father  also.  For  first,  Father  and  Son  are  one  ; 
second,  God  and  Man  are  one  in  Christ ;  third, 
Christ  and  His  Church  are  one ;  and  lastly,  the 
Sinner  becomes  one  with  the  whole  by  the  uni- 
ting element  of  baptism.  But  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, Protestantism,  consistent  with  its  idea  of 
individual  Election  to  eternal  life,  struck  out  the 
Church;  and  this  was  exactly  what  our  Church 
did  not  do.  With  that  third  factor  gone,  there 
was  at  once  a  gap  between  the  sinner  and  Christ. 
How,  now,  was  the  sinner  to  be  made  one  with 
Christ  ?  Why,  Protestantism  substituted  the  pro- 
cess of  individual  experiencing  of  religion  with 
the  whole  revival  system ;  and  so  sought  to  bridge 
the  gap  between  each  separate  individual  and 


QQ  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

Christ.  And  when,  without  the  actual  sacra- 
mental bands,  he  falls  away,  they  are  forced  to 
bring  to  bear  the  machinery  again  for  "  a  revival 
of  religion  in  his  heart." 

Now,  the  question  is  not  before  us,  whether 
the  sinner  can  gain,  by  that  process,  the  real,  the 
actual,  though  supernatural,  union  with  Christ, 
whereby  "  the  twain  become  one  flesh  ;  "  or 
whether  it  is  only  that  abstract  union  of  consent, 
which  exists  between  friend  and  friend.  Better 
the  latter,  than  nothing  at  all.  But  there  is  an- 
other very  important  point  which  is  before  us, 
and  that  is  the  logical  effect  of  this  system  upon 
sacraments.  For,  if  the  individual  can  either 
make  himself,  or  become  one  with  Christ  under 
that  process,  you  will  see  that  the  importance  of 
baptism  at  once  sinks  away  ;  because  the  main 
work  of  uniting  the  sinner  to  Christ  has  all  been 
done  without  it,  and  prior  to  it ;  and  baptism,  as 
a  subsequent  rite,  sinks  to  a  mere  form,  simply 
to  mark  distinction  between  one  set  of  men  and 
another ;  a  form,  which  the  highly  logical  society 
of  Quakers  get  along  very  well  without.  Again, 
if  the  individual  can  bridge  the  gap  and  become 
one  with  Christ,  regardless  of  the  I>ody  Mystical, 
what  does  he  want  of  the  Holy  Communion  as  a 
visible  means  to  supply  him  with  the  strengthen- 
ing sustenance  of  Christ's  nature  ?  He  can  feed 
directly  upon  Christ,  all  in  the  way  of  immedia- 
lion,  all  in  the  way  of  nature,  not  of  mediation ; 
all  in  the  way  of  nationalism,  not  of  Christianity. 


COMPBOMISE   WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         (37 

For  I  do  not  desire,  in  these  solemn  and  vital 
questions,  to  disguise  what  I  mean.  Strike  out 
the  Sacraments,  strike  out  the  Church  Catholic  as 
Christ's  Body  Mystical,  as  the  Outward  Means  of 
conveying  Inward  Graces;  strike  out  the  Apos- 
tolic Ministry,  and  you  have  struck  a  fatal  blow 
at  the  whole  doctrine  of  Mediation  between  man 
and  God.  You  have  sounded  the  trumpet  for 
Immediation.  You  do  not,  as  some  excellent 
people  fancy,  start  an  issue  between  Catholic 
Christianity  and  a  merely  spiritual  kind  of  Chris- 
tianity. Your  issue  is  nothing  short  of  the  life  or 
eventual  death  of  Christianity  itself.  "What  does 
the  man  want,  I  repeat,  of  the  Holy  Eucharist, 
except  as  a  mere  memorial  to  quicken  a  memory 
of  a  past  tragedy  on  Calvary?  A  result  which 
preaching,  or  even  his  own  meditations  before  a 
picture,  or  better,  a  crucifix,  could  do  as  well. 

The  fact  is,  with  the  striking  out  of  the  Church, 
you  have  even  such  relics  of  what  is  Churchly  as 
are  retained  by  Protestantism,  to  wit,  its  sacra- 
ments, reduced  to  mere  ordinances — to  forms  of 
not  very  much  importance  after  all,  and  you  have 
any  specified  line  of  ministry  to  administer  those 
sacraments,  a  mere  impertinence  between  the  sin- 
ner and  God.  Away  with  your  Apostolic  Minis- 
try then !  says  Protestantism ;  it  is  no  more  valid 
than  any  other !  And  Protestantism  is  entirely 
logical,  too,  when  it  says  so.  Away  with  your 
altars,  says  the  great  preacher  of  Brooklyn  ;  the 
private  Christian  layman  can  set  up  bread  and 


(38  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

wine  before  him  in  his  closet,  and  gazing  upon  it 
can  make  as  valid  a  Eucharist!  and  the  great 
preacher  is  logical  and  loyal  to  the  principles  of 
Protestantism  when  he  says  so.  Away  with  min- 
isterial baptism,  say  the  Se-Baptists ;  let  the  lay- 
man apply  the  water  to  himself,  and  it  is  as  valid 
a  baptism ! 

But,  did  Christ  solemnly  ordain  rites  of  com- 
parative unimportance,  and  found  a  ministry, 
promising  to  be  with  it  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
the  breaking  up  or  continuance  of  which  was  a 
matter  of  small  moment  ?  If  not,  then  there  must 
be  something  wrong  in  the  point  that  lies  behind 
and  below,  that  involves  all  such  subsequent 
destruction.  Once  restore,  however,  the  lost  fac- 
tor of  the  Church  Catholic,  as  God's  appointed 
Outward  Means  of  inward  graces,  and  sacraments 
and  ministry  all  naturally  take  their  places  as 
valuable,  nay,  as  indispensable  gifts  to  mankind. 

Now,  simply  in  itself  considered,  what  indeed 
is  the  difference  whether  we  have  a  ministry  in 
three  orders  or  in  one  ?  It  would  seem  to  be  a 
very  small  affair  either  way.  And  the  Church, 
which  stands  stiffly  for  Her  Bishops,  and  refuses 
to  recognize  other  lines  of  ministry,  would  appear 
to  be  making  a  vast  deal  out  of  a  very  unessential 
matter.  But  when  we  consider  that  there  is  some- 
thing beneath  this  question  of  the  Ministry,  which 
is  really,  in  itself,  of  vast  importance,  and  that  out 
of  it  the  question  of  the  Apostolic  Ministry  grows, 
then  the  fact,  whether  or  not  we  are  to  preserve 


COMPROMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.          (59 

that  ministry,  mounts  logically  into  vast  impor- 
tance. Election,  and  whether  it  is  of  the  individ- 
ual to  eternal  life,  or  whether  it  is  of  the  individ- 
ual into  a  great  system  arranged  by  God  Himself, 
to  be,  on  the  whole,  the  best  possible  aid  to  free 
mortals  in  struggling  toward  salvation,  is  a  matter 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  dying  souls.  It  is 
nothing  short  of  two  different  modes  of  salvation 

O 

through  Christ,  which  are  presented  to  the  world ; 
the  one  the  individual  mode,  leaping  over  the 
Church,  the  other  the  churchly  mode ;  two  dif- 
ferent modes,  each  logically  destructive  of  the 
other.  It  is  nothing  short  of  two  different  Christs, 
one  with  a  Body  Mystical  on  earth,  the  other 
without  it ;  and  finally,  two  different  Gods  that 
are  presented  to  the  world.  For  in  its  last  result 
the  Protestant  God  is  essentially  the  God  of  the 
Sabellian  Heresy. 

Thus  the  Apostolic  Ministry,  as  a  vital  part  of 
that  system  arranged  by  God,  to  be  the  best  help  for 
the  sinner  in  striving  to  make  his  calling  and  elec- 
tion sure,  is  grounded  and  rooted  in  the  doctrine 
of  Election.  You  cannot  pull  up  a  tree  without 
tearing  up  the  earth  all  around  it.  The  ministry, 
considered  merely  in  itself,  may  be  nothing ;  the 
sacraments,  and  whether  they  are  administered  by 
a  divinely  authorized  set  of  men  or  not,  may  be 
nothing  in  themselves ;  but  in  their  vital  connec- 
tion with  Election,  with  that  subject  which  gives 
a  differing  aspect  to  the  whole  Christianity  which 
is  preached,  the  Ministry  and  Sacraments  mount, 


70      THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

I  repeat,  into  questions  of  the  gravest  importance. 
It  is  not  strange,  it  is  entirely  logical  and  consist- 
ent, that  the  Protestant  sects,  with  their  view  of 
individual  Election,  should  set  lightly  by  any 
given  line  of  ministry,  and  be  perfectly  willing  to 
interchange  pulpits  indiscriminately.  But  those 
among  us  who  tamper  with  the  Ministry  and 
Sacraments  of  the  Church,  who  set  lightly  by 
them,  are  tampering  with,  nay,  they  are  upheav- 
ing and  tearing  to  pieces  the  whole  ground,  and 
altering  the  entire  aspect  of  Christianity  as  pre- 
sented to  the  sinner  and  to  the  wrorld,  by  the 
Church. 

You  will  perceive,  then,  my  friends,  that 
whichever  view  is  right,  the  Protestant  view  of 
Election  is,  at  any  rate,  absolutely  destructive  of 
the  whole  Church  system  to  which  we  hold ;  that 
as  we  hold  to  the  other  view,  it  naturally  carries 
us  into  different  conclusions  from  the  Protestant, 
touching  the  Ministry,  the  Sacraments,  all  the 
rites  and  ways,  nay  the  very  existence  itself  of  the 
Church  Yisible;  and  that,  while  all  the  sects, 
however  differing  among  themselves  on  unessen- 
tial points,  are  fundamentally  at  one  among  them- 
selves, we  are  separated  from  them  all  at  the  very 
start  by  a  gulf,  not  only  enormously  wide,  but 
enormously  deep,  and  logically  incapable  of  being 
bridged. 

However  we  may  agree  with  the  sects  in  pro- 
testing against  certain  errors  peculiar  to  Rome,  we 
hold  that,  at  any  rate,  that  fact  is  not  the  test  by 


COMPROMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         71 

which  we  should  be  classified.  For  we  still  main- 
tain, that  notwithstanding  the  unfortunate  name 
of  "  Protestant  Episcopal,"  fixed  upon  us  as  an 
incubus  by  the  notion  of  a  dozen  or  two  gentle- 
men (to  whom,  indeed,  we  are  indebted,  under 
God,  for  very  much,  for  which  we  are  thankful), 
about  the  beginning  of  this  century,  when  the 
Church  in  America  was  marvellously  small,  we 
still  maintain,  I  say,  that  notwithstanding  this,  we 
are  not  one  of  the  sects,  that  we  never  have  left 
the  great  body  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  that, 
God  helping  us,  we  never  will.  But  that  ever,  as 
in  the  past  so  in  the  future,  the  voice  of  the 
Churchman  shall  be  raised  in  the  Creed,  "  I  BE- 
LIEVE ONE  CATHOLIC  AND  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH." 

Even  at  the  risk  of  exhausting  your  patience, 
I  ask  a  few  more  moments  of  your  attention  for  a 
word  of  warning  and  of  counsel. 

It  takes  no  prophetic  eye  to  see  that  the  long 
night  which  closed  upon  the  world  at  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  long  night  of  mere  religious  negation, 
is  about  over,  and  that  the  dawn  of  religious 
affirmation,  of  positive  assertion,  is  breaking  again 
upon  the  world.  Earnest  men,  tired  of  being 
longer  told  what  they  shall  protest  against,  what 
they  shall  not  believe,  are  rising  by  thousands 
with  the  demand  upon  their  lips,  "  Tell  me  what 
I  shall  believe ! "  "We  have  reached  the  opening 
of  a  tremendous  religious  crisis  in  America.  A 
new  type  of  man  is  coming  up  with  demands 
other  than  those  born  of  the  mountains  of 


72  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

Switzerland  and  Scotland.  "We  are  beginning 
to  feel  all  round  beneath  us,  as  a  people,  tlie 
ripplings  of  a  mighty  tidal  wave,  which,  lifting 
us,  is  about  to  tear  our  anchors  up  from  the 
ground  of  Protestantism,  and,  if  we  are  not  care- 
ful, to  sweep  us  en  'masse  into  Komanism.  The 
reaction  has  already  begun  in  Boston.  How 
kindly  they  are  beginning  to  look  upon  Rome  at 
the  spot  where  all  great  movements  of  American 
mind  begin  !  If  you  would  know  which  way  the 
storm  is  going  to  blow,  look  at  the  straws  in  Bos- 
ton. The  fact  is,  the  position  of  Protestantism  is 
thoroughly  undermined  all  round  about  us,  and 
the  wary  old  man  of  the  Vatican  knows  it.  Those 
two  articles  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  breathe  un- 
consciously the  spirit  of  prophecy.  How  has  all 
this  come  to  pass  2  Thus  :  for  nearly  a  century, 
now,  the  cry  that  has  been  going  up  from  the 
laity  of  all  denominations  to  the  pulpit  is,  "  Give 
us  no  doctrinal  sermons ;  we  simply  want  practi- 
cal sermons,  sermons  that  will  touch  the  heart." 
And  what  has  been  the  result  ?  Why,  through- 
out this  broad  land  the  people  everywhere  are  left 
to-day  without  a  positive  faith  of  any  kind.  Sev- 
enty years  ago,  men  still  believed  something  ;  you 
would  not  have  found,  then,  an  orthodox  Con- 
gregationalist  exchanging  pulpits  with  a  Unita- 
rian, nor  a  Presbyterian  with  a  Methodist.  Fifty 
years  ago  you  would  not  have  found  a  Baptist 
coquetting  with  a  Unitarian.  Nay,  twenty  years 
ago  the  high  Unitarian  even  shut  his  pulpit-door 
against  the  Parkerite.  But  tempora  mutantur. 


COMPROMISE  WITH  SECTS  IMPOSSIBLE.         73 

For  the  want  of  positive  doctrinal  teaching  (and 
Protestantism  is  in  its  essence  destructive  of  it,  it 
has  all  come  naturally  to  pass),  positive  Christian 
faith  is  banished  from  the  land.  The  faith  of 
America  to-day  is  summed  up  in  this  one  article, 
"  I  believe  it  is  not  necessary  to  believe  any  thing 
definite."  Now,  you  may  hold  the  mind  of  man 
in  the  mass  at  that  point  for  a  while,  but  not 
long.  It  is,  after  all,  the  nature  of  the  human 
mind  to  crave  something  positive.  It  will  at  last 
react,  with  a  violence  of  oscillation  proportioned 
to  the  distance  and  height  to  which  you  have 
drawn  it  away. 

How  stands,  then,  our  beloved  country  to-day  ? 
Why,  thus :  first,  without  any  definite  faith,  and 
unequipped  with  an  argument  why  it  should  not 
believe  this  theological  point,  and  why  it  should 
believe  that ;  and,  secondly,  with  simply  a  violent 
prejudice  against  any  thing  that  is  Romish.  Now, 
when  Rome  makes  a  convert,  she  teaches  that 
convert  what  to  believe  and  why  to  believe  it. 
And  when  against  American  Protestantism,  thus 
emptied  of  positive  faith,  unsupplied  with  theo- 
logical arguments,  and  shielded  only  with  brittle 
prejudices,  you  bring  to  bear  the  positive  faith 
and  arguments  of  Rome,  it  is  like  smiting  a  hol- 
low globe  of  glass  with  a  boulder  of  rock.  It  is 
the  easiest  of  all  things  to  break  down  mere  un- 
informed prejudice. 

Now,  this  land,  I  take  it, '  does  not  want 
Romish  errors ;  but  it  is  rising  hungry  for  a  posi- 
4 


74  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PBOTESTANTISM. 

tive  faith.  Christian  union  meetings,  to  make 
headway  against  Rome,  are  not  the  cure  of  the 
great  disease  of  the  day.  That  disease  can  only 
be  met  by  a  positive  faith. 

Our  Church,  as  a  national  branch  of  the  great 
Church  Catholic,  is  not  founded  upon  negations. 
She  is  founded  upon  affirmations.  She,  as  well 
as  Rome,  has  a  positive  faith,  and  not  only  posi- 
tive, but  clear  of  any  Romish  errors.  And,  un- 
less we  rouse  to  the  danger  of  the  day,  and  with 
our  positive  faith  go  forth  to  take  this  land,  noth- 
ing will  save  it  from  Roman  Catholicism.  Said 
that  remarkable  seer,  De  Tocqueville,  years  ago, 
of  us,  "  America  will,  sooner  or  later,  lie  prostrate, 
the  easy  captive  of  Rome ;  because  regulars  al- 
ways beat  the  militia." 

Our  duty  as  loyal  children  of  the  Church  is 
plain.  "We  have  no  need,  as  we  move  among  the 
denominations,  to  apologize  for  our  Fair  Mother. 
Too  much  of  this,  alas,  already !  Too  much  of 
the  obsequious  to  our  inferiors !  "  He  who  ex- 
cuses, accuses,"  and.  but  confirms  disesteem,  in- 
stead of  commanding  respect.  "We  are  not  almost 
like  the  denominations,  and,  therefore,  to  be  tol- 
erated by  them  in  our  peculiarities  of  written 
prayers  and  vested  clergy.  We  are  Catholic,  and 
fundamentally  different.  As  you  go  forth,  then, 
into  the  world  as  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
Church,  sound  no  uncertain  trumpet,  but  let  your 
motto  be,  I  BELIEVE  IN  ONE,  HOLT,  CATHOLIC 
AND  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH. 


IV. 

PROTESTANTISM    LOGICALLY    DESTRUC- 
TIVE OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

And  many  false  Prophets  shall  rise,  and  shall  deceive  many.— - 
ST.  MATT.  xxiv.  11. 

THE  New  Testament  is  full  of  warnings  against 
subtle  attacks  that  were  to  be  made  in  subsequent 
times  upon  Christianity.  We  are  not  only  told 
that  some  of  these  attacks  would  be  made  by  open 
enemies,  but  that  there  would  be  others  made  by 
avowed  friends.  And  we  are  forewarned  that 
the  latter  would  be  of  such  nature  as  to  deceive 
even  the  elect  were  it  possible.  It  is  our  distinct 
charge  that  Protestantism  is  one  of  the  latter  class 
of  attacks.  Its  adherents  are,  of  course,  friends 
of  Christ;  but  they  are  mistaken  friends;  they 
know  not  what  they  do.  It  is  our  warning  that 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Church  avoid  all 
Protestant  religious  systems. 

We  bring  forward  an  additional  charge  to-day, 
viz.,  that  wherever  you  meet  with  a  region  of  coun- 
try that  has  been  burned  over  and  over  again  with 
the  fires  of  "  Revivalism,"  there  an  almost  utter 


76  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

and  very  general  indifference  to  religion  eventual- 
ly supervenes.  We  look  not  so  much  at  the  im- 
mediate results  of  the  revival  system  in  making 
this  additional  charge  ;  they  are  deceptive.  But 
we  look  to  the  final  fruits.  The  whole  system  is 
a  stupendous  blunder.  But  even  the  immediate 
results  are  not  to  be  passed  over  lightly. 

Take  the  great  revival  of  1859-'60  in  Ireland. 
What  is  the  testimony  of  the  Rev.  Isaac  Nelson,  a 
Presbyterian  minister  in  Belfast  ?  He  frankly  says, 
"  The  revival  was  made  to  rest  for  its  reality  on  cer- 
tain extraordinary  conversions,  which  have  since 
proved  false  and  wicked ;  the  consequence  being  an 
immensely  increased  immorality  in  Ulster.  Now," 
he  says,  "  will  Dr.  McCorle  meet  us  on  this  asser- 
tion, or  put  it  to  the  test  of  statistics  ?  We  know  he 
will  not ;  he  dare  not.  The  morality  of  the  Pres- 
byterian people  has  been  ruined  by  the  Revival." 
Such,  my  brethren,  was  the  immediate  result,  one 
of  the  Revivalists  himself  being  the  judge. 

Let  me  give  you  another  extract  concerning 
that  same  Revival ;  it  is  this,  viz.,  "  Many  of  the 
earlier  Revivalists,  whose  mental  calibre  could  not 
withstand  the  excitement  of  the  movement,  have 
found  a  permanent  home  in  lunatic  asylums ; 
while  multitudes  of  others,  puffed  up  with  spirit- 
ual pride,  have  fallen  into  worse  diseases  than  that 
of  the  mind.  Many  who,  three  years  ago,  were 
distinguished  as  Revivalist  preachers  of  the  purest 
and  most  sanctified  kind,  are  now  drunkards, 
thieves,  and  immoral  livers ;  and  one  to  our  cer- 


PKOTESTANTISM  DESTEOYS  CHEISTIANITY.      77- 

tain  knowledge  is  now  lying  in  prison,  charged 
with  being  concerned  in  a  late  cowardly  and  bar- 
barous murder.  Since  the  Eevival  began  seduc- 
tion has  prevailed  to  an  extent  never  known  be- 
fore, as  the  large  increase  in  the  number  of  ille- 
gitimate children  fully  proves.  Has  drunkenness 
or  immorality  decreased  in  the  district  where  it 
chiefly  prevailed  ?  The  very  contrary  is  the  fact. 
Judged  therefore  by  its  results,  the  Revival  move- 
ment of  1859-'60  must  be  considered  not  as  '  a  re- 
freshing stream  of  God's  grace,'  as  some  have  not 
hesitated  profanely  to  call  it,  but  as  a  withering 
blight  which  has  parched  the  ground  which  it 
seemed  to  refresh,  and  has  left  behind  it  fruits 
the  full  bitterness  of  which  will  never  be  truly 
known  till  the  day  of  doom." 

But  I  do  not  intend  in  this  sermon  to  dwell  at 
all  upon  this  point  of  the  searing  effect  of  Protes- 
tant Revivals.  I  merely  allude  to  it,  and  return 
to  one  of  the  main  charges,  viz. :  that  wherever 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Protestantism  have 
taken  deep  root  in  the  mind  of  a  thoughtful  peo- 
ple, there,  after  a  number  of  generations,  infidelity 
prevails  to  a  very  general — to  an  alarming  extent. 
The  charge  is,  that  the  logical  conclusion  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  Protestantism  is  Ration- 
alism, and  that  the  historical  issue  in  the  case  of 
Germany,  Switzerland,  America,  and  other  Prot- 
estant lands,  substantiates  the  logical  anticipa- 
tion. 

You  perceive  at  once  the  seriousness  of  this 


Y8  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

indictment.  If  it  is  true,  then  Protestantism  is 
what  I  have  charged  it  to  be,  a  heresy.  If  it  is 
true,  it  is  not  a  subject  to  be  provoked  about ;  it 
is  'a  matter  to  be  grieved  over ;  for  multitudes  of 
good  men  are  identified  with  Protestantism.  If 
it  is  true,  Protestantism  should  be  avoided  by  every 
one  who  loves  his  brother-man,  and  the  cause  of 
our  Blessed  Saviour.  Its  houses  of  worship  should 
never  be  entered  by  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
Church.  If  it  is  not  true,  then  it  is  for  Protes- 
tants to  let  us  know  why,  which  they  have  es- 
sayed but  failed  to  do  hitherto.  If  it  is  true,  it  is 
something  you  ought  to  know  and  not  to  turn 
aside  from.  If  it  is  true,  it  is  criminal  for  the 
Christian  to  ignore  it.  It  is  too  important  a 
charge  to  be  prejudged,  and  too  important  to  be 
pushed  aside  because  it  is  an  unpleasant  subject. 
If  individuals  will  not  hear,  the  world  is  hearing, 
and  will  hear,  and  will  decide  the  issue. 

There  are  two  counts,  then,  in  the  indictment, 
which  I  dwell  on  this  morning :  First,  that,  as  a 
t  fact,  infidelity  prevails  very  widely  in  lands  which 
once  were  Protestant.  Secondly,  that  this  is  be- 
cause the  logical  issue  of  the  Protestant  dogma  is 
nationalism. 

Let  us  consider  the  first  count.  Permit  me  to 
read  to  you  a  little  "  Account  of  Religion  in  G-e- 
neva,  Switzerland."  It  is  written  by  a  Protestant 
minister,  and  is  as  follows,  viz. : 

"The  statements  made  by  Mr.  J.  Wright,  a 
Unitarian,  are,  alas,  too  true ! — viz.,  that  the  sue- 


PROTESTANTISM  DESTROYS  CHRISTIANITY.      79 

cessors  of  the  very  magistrates  wh.0  condemned 
Servetus,  of  the  pastors  who  excommunicated  him 
as  the  denier  of  the  Trinity,  now  themselves  unite 
in  rejecting  that  doctrine !  The  faith  of  the  great 
churches  of  Geneva  is  Unitarianism.  The  system 
of  John  Calvin  is  almost  extinct  in  the  town  where 
he  was  once  the  spiritual  tyrant.  There  are  be- 
lievers in  the  divinity  of  our  blessed  Lord  Jesus 
existing  in  Geneva,  it  is  true,  who  are  divided  into 
several  parties,  but  the  national  church  of  Geneva 
is  Unitarian.  The  number  of  inhabitants  in  Ge- 
neva amounts  to  about  64,000 ;  among  them  are 
about  40,000  Unitarians,  18,000  Roman  Catho- 
lics, and  the  'miserable  balance  only  are  left  to 
Protestant  Trinitarianisin" 

"We  all  know  how  things  have  turned  out  af- 
ter three  centuries  of  Protestantism  in  Germany. 
There  is  no  need  of  testimony  on  that  point. 

We  all  know  how  it  is  in  New  England,  and 
wherever  New  England  emigration  has  spread. 
But  let  me  read  you  an  extract  in  illustration. 
Not  many  months  since,  the  Hartford  Courant 
informed  us  that  "the  Congregational  ministers 
of  Connecticut  have  thoroughly  canvassed  their 
parishes  to  ascertain  the  actual  religious  condition 
of  the  State.  The  result  was  unexpected.  In  one 
hundred  towns,  at  least  one-third  of  the  families 
are  not  in  the  habit  of  going  to  church.  Irreligion 
was  found  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  dis- 
tance from  the  centre  of  the  towns.  It  prevails 
more  in  sparsely-settled  farming  districts  than  in 


80      THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

the  manufacturing;  villages.     The  Committee  on 

O  O 

Home  Evangelization  say  in  their  published  re- 
port: 

" '  The  returns  give  the  impression  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  population  do  not  often  sink  to 
so  low  a  grade  of  heathenism  as  the  irreligious 
native-born  population.  They  do  not  entirely 
abandon  some  thought  of  God,  and  some  respect 
for  their  own  religious  observances.  Uniformly 
the  districts  most  utterly  given  over  to  desolation 
are  districts  occupied  by  a  population  purely  na- 
tive American.  A  similar  state  of  things  is  re- 
ported to  exist  in  some  parts  of  Massachusetts.' " 

Now,  brethren,  I  am  not,  of  course,  defending 
Roman  Catholicism.  But  it  is  at  least  singular  to 
notice  that  of  the  two  evils  in  Connecticut,  Ro- 
manism and  Protestantism,  that  which  with  all  its 
errors  is  still  Catholic,  is,  according  to  the  official 
testimony  of  Protestants  themselves,  the  lesser  evil. 

Now,  let  us  see  what  is  going  on  among  the 
Presbyterians.  Some  years  ago  there  was  a  long 
article  in  the  New  York  Observer  (Old  School)  in 
eulogy  of  an  excellent  "  Elect  Lady,"  who  was  es- 
pecially commended  for  knowing  the  Westminster 
Catechism  by  heart,  and  teaching  it  carefully  to 
her  descendants.  The  Observer  then  went  on  to 
say :  "  There  are  few  among  us  now,  fewer  in  pro- 
portion than  in  previous  years,  of  whom  such  a 
fact  can  be  affirmed !  What  is  the  reason  ?  Is 
the  catechism  obsolete?  Is  it  a  bad  instruction 
for  our  children  1 "  Now,  brethren,  this  is  a  very 


PROTESTANTISM  DESTROYS  CHRISTIANITY,      gl 

important  confession,  showing  the  downward  ten- 
dency of  Protestantism  in  the  Presbyterian  ranks. 
Nor  is  this  confined  to  Presbyterianism  in  the 
United  States.  At  the  antipodes  it  is  as  bad  or 
worse.  Permit  me  to  read  to  you  the  following 
item  from  a  dissenting  paper  in  England : 

"From  some  proceedings  before  the  Presby- 
tery of  Tasmania  on  the  22d  of  April,  it  appears 
that  one  of  their  number,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Robert- 
son, is  charged  with  entertaining  unsound  views 
on  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  having  a  ten- 
dency to  Unitarianism.  The  Presbytery  declined 
by  a  majority  to  file  a  libel  on  Mr.  Robertson. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  J.  Stone  then  said  that  he  and 
those  who  thought  with  him  had  determined,  in 
case  a  majority  of  the  Presbytery  acquitted  Mr. 
Robertson,  to  apply  to  the  Home  Government  to 
withhold  the  grant  from  the  Church  of  Scotland  in 
this  colony,  on  the  ground  that  the  majority  of  the 
Presbytery  had  apostatized  from  the  faith  of  their 
fathers.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Turnbull  and  the  Rev.  J. 
"Walker  concurred  in  the  statement  of  Mr.  Storie ; 
and  Mr.  "Walker  remarked  that  the  Presbytery 
must  either  ~be  purified  or  swept  away  altogether" 

Look  at  Harvard  University,  once  Trinitarian, 
but  descending,  after  a  while,  into  Unitarianism. 
Yale  College  was  established,  if  I  mistake  not, 
owing  to  the  Unitarianism  of  Harvard.  But,  at 
any  rate,  years  ago,  President  Clap,  on  entering 
upon  his  duties  at  Yale,  "  publicly  acknowledged 
not  only  the  "Westminster  Catechism  and  Confes- 
4* 


82  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTEST ANTISM. 

sion  of  Faith  and  the  Saybrook  Platform,  but  also 
the  Apostles',  Nicene,  and  Athanasian  Creeds  as 
agreeing  with  the  word  of  God."  The  gradual 
but  steady  degeneracy  of  the  Protestant  system 
would,  however,  work  out  its  own  results.  And  so 
we  find  that  President  Stiles  differed  from  his 
predecessor.  Dr.  Stiles  would  not  accept  the 
office  of  President  until  the  corporation  had  abro- 
gated the  tests  instituted  by  President  Clap,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Saybrook  Platform.  The 
Saybrook  Platform  held  its  own  till  1822,  when  all 
tests  were  abrogated.  "  Thus  in  regard  to  the 
formal  teaching  of  theology  in  the  '  Church  of 
Christ  in  Yale  College,'  as  required  by  statute,  it 
began  with  full,  definite,  established  formulas  of 
Faith,  and  ended  in— nothing."  But  the  evi- 
dences of  the  inevitable  descent  of  Protestantism 
from  the  high  standards  of  faith  and  practice, 
which  it  carried  with  it  out  of  the  Church,  are 
varied  as  well  as  numerous.  Time  was,  for  in- 
stance, when  the  vast  majority  of  Protestants  held 
it  to  be  right  to  baptize  their  infants.  The  decay 
of  infant  baptism  among  them  is  another  token 
that  they  are  sinking  from  the  faith  of  their 
fathers.  The  annual  report  (1860)  of  the  Congre- 
gational General  Association  of  Connecticut  in- 
forms us  that  there  were  "  many  instances  of  Con- 
gregational societies,  numbering  their  members 
by  hundreds,  but  having  not  one  infant  baptism 
through  the  year."  But  I  might  fill  this  sermon 
with  similar  extracts. 


PKOTESTANTISM  DESTROYS  CHRISTIANITY.      83 

I  pass  on  to  lay  before  you  reasons,  addi- 
tional to  those  presented  in  previous  sermons, 
why  the  logical  result  of  Protestantism  is  Kational- 
ism. 

It  is  patent  that,  in  Massachusetts  and  else 
where,  whole  orthodox  Congregational  Societies 
have  gone  down  as  bodies  into  Unitarianism. 
Now,  if  individuals  only  had  gone,  they  might  be 
considered  as  eccentric  cases.  But  where  societies 
have  gone  as  bodies,  pastor  and  the  majority  of 
his  people,  it  shows  that  there  was  some  logical 
necessity  about  it. 

If,  too,  this  descent  of  Presbyterianism  into 
Congregationalism,  and  of  Trinitarian  Congrega- 
tionalism into  old-fashioned  Unitarianism,  and  of 
old  high  Unitarianism  into  Parkerism,  was  only 
to  be  found  in  isolated  cases,  or  in  one  section  of 
a  country,  or  even  in  one  country,  or  in  one  cen- 
tury only,  we  might  think  it  had  happened  from 
individual  peculiarity,  or  from  local  causes,  or 
from  national  idiosyncrasy.  But  when  the  evi- 
dences of  the  grand  descent  are  everywhere  where 
Protestantism  has  been,  and  not  even  confined  to 
one  century,  there  must  be  some  logical  necessity 
about  it  to  account  for  it.  Why,  look  at  England 
in  1656.  Protestantism  was  at  first  Presbyterian 
there.  But  the  English  mind  was  a  logical  mind, 
and  Presbyterianism  was  not  long  in  giving  birth 
to  Congregationalism  (or  Independentism),  which 
grew  in  Cromwell's  day  into  far  larger  propor- 
tions than  those  of  the  mother  that  bore  it. 


84:  THE  EAILUEE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

Everywhere  we  find  every  thing  indicating  the 
downward  movement. 

I  proceed,  then,  to  give  a  reason,  additional  to 
those  set  forth  in  previous  sermons,  for  this 
gravity. 

The  great  truths  which  distinguish  Christian- 
ity are  the  Mediation,  the  Priesthood,  the  Royal- 
ty, and  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ.  These  truths  have 
their  natural,  visible  expressions  in  the  Church 
Apostolic  and  Catholic.  "What  are  those  expres- 
sions? First,  how  does  the  spiritual  fact  of 
Christ's  Mediation  find  its  corresponding  expres- 
sion in  the  Church?  Why,  in  all  those  peculiari- 
ties which  come  in  between  the  sinner  and  God, 
and  which  are  intermediate,  not  for  the  purpose 
of  sundering  but  of  uniting  the  two.  There  are, 
for  instance,  the  sacraments  and  ordinances  of  the 
Church  ;  the  separation  of  the  holy  altar  from  the 
nave  by  a  railing ;  the  fact  that  the  layman  ap- 
proaches to  the  rail  and  no  farther ;  and,  in  fact, 
all  the  intermediate  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church.  Secondly,  how  does  the  spiritual  fact 
of  Christ's  Priesthood  find  its  visible  expression 
in  the  Church  ?  Why,  in  the  apostolic  clergy  on 
earth,  who  act  for  the  laity ;  who  alone  can  con- 
secrate and  administer  the  Blessed  Eucharist. 
Thirdly,  where,  in  the  Church,  do  we  find  the 
visible  expression  of  Christ's  Royalty,  His  au- 
thority as  King  ?  We  find  it  in  the  government 
that  God  hath  set  over  His  Church  Militant ;  in 
the  Rector  as  the  governor  of  the  Parish,  and  the 


PEOTESTANTISM  DESTEOYS  CHEISTIANITY.      §5 

Bishop  as  the  governor  of  the  Rectors  and  laity. 
Then,  fourthly,  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ  finds  its 
visible  expression  in  the  Blessed  Eucharist. 

ISTow,  in  every  family  the  children  are  in  a 
natural  school ;  as  from  earliest  infancy  they  look 
up  to  their  earthly  father,  they  are  gaining  impres- 
sions touching  what  God  must  be  as  their  Heav- 
enly Father ;  they  are  learning  to  look  up  to,  rev- 
erence, and  obey  Him.  Just  so  God  would  set 
us  all  in  the  school  of  the  Church ;  that,  trained 
in  that  school,  and  under  the  constant  influence 
of  the  four  visible  expressions  I  have  mentioned, 
we  may  not  lose  our  hold  of  the  prime  facts  of 
the  Mediation,  the  Priesthood,  the  Royalty,  and 
the  Sacrifice  of  Christ. 

Now,  Protestantism  has  striven  to  turn  the 
world  out  of  that  school ;  and  what  wonder  if,  in 
the  end,  its  adherents  lose  knowledge  of,  and  be- 
lief in,  those  prime  facts ! 

For  let  us  try  the  effect  of  the  destruction  of 
any  one  of  the  four  visible  expressions.  The  cry 
of  the  Protestant  is,  "  I  want  no  visible  Church ; 
I  want  nothing  of  the  kind  to  come  in  between 
me  and  God ;  I  want  no  rails  at  chancels ;  I  want 
no  communion-table  shut  up  in  an  apartment  by 
itself ;  bring  it  down  into  the  congregation ;  your 
whole  visible  scheme  of  intermediation  is  in  the 
way ;  it  is  impertinent ;  I  can  and  will  go  direct 
to  God  myself  without  your  cumbersome  church- 
ly  machinery ;  I  want  no  set  lessons  from  Scrip- 
ture selected  for  my  contemplation  on  set  days ; 


86  .  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

I  can  select  for  myself ;  I  want  no  days  set  apart 
by  the  Church  in  which  I  must  meditate  on  cer- 
tain truths ;  I  can  think  of  any  of  those  truths  at 
any  time."  And  so  Protestantism,  borne  on  by  its 
spirit  of  liberty,  so  called,  clears  away  the  whole. 

You  can  go  direct  to  God,  indeed,  Mr.  Protes- 
tant? Our  scheme  of  visible  intermediation  in 
the  way  and  impertinent  ?  Ah,  brethren,  do  you 
not  see  that  this  strikes  at  the  principle  of  any 
mediation  whatever  f  By  such  assertions  Protes- 
tantism yields  the  vital  principle  itself  to  Ration- 
alism. And  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that,  in  the 
hands  of  such  giants  as  Beecher,  Channing,  and 
Parker,  the  Protestant  mind  should  slowly  sink 
into  avowed  Rationalism.  Here  is  the  explana- 
tion of  the  fact,  that  thousands  of  young  and 
middle-aged  men,  sons  and  grandsons  of  the  old- 
fashioned  Protestants,  are  either  secret  doubters 
or  avowed  skeptics ;  and  that  our  very  churches 
are  crowded  with  semi-Deists,  who  chafe  under 
any  preaching  save  the  preaching  of  glittering 
generalities  about  morality  and  natural  goodness. 
The  fact  is,  in  abandoning  God's  Yisible  Church 
Catholic,  Protestants  have  abandoned  the  vital 
outwork  of  the  doctrine  of  Mediation — the  sole 
defence  of  that  doctrine ;  and  with  the  outwork 
gone,  the  city  itself  falls.  It  is  fatal  to  touch  that 
in  the  Church  Yisible  which  is  harmonious  with, 
and  which  expresses  and  conserves  the  great  truth 
of,  the  Mediation. 

Try  now  the  effect  of  the  destruction  of  the 


PEOTESTANTISM  DESTEOYS  CHRISTIANITY.      37 

outwork  or  bulwark  of  the  Priesthood  of  Christ, 
the  second  great  spiritual  fact  of  Christianity. 
Strike  down  the  Apostolic  ministry  of  the  Yisible 
Church  Catholic,  and  you  equally  expose  the 
spiritual  fact  of  the  Priesthood  of  Christ.  And 
thus  laid  bare  and  unprotected,  it  also  falls  before 
the  attacks  of  Kationalism.  Let  us  look  at  this  a 
little : 

The  Protestant  cry  is,  "  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  visible  Priesthood  on  earth;  the  ministry 
need  not  originate  from  the  apostles  alone,  and 
come  down  in ,  the  regular  succession  which  the 
Catholics  claim;  it  originates  as  well  from  the 
people,  in  whom  primarily  its  powers  are  lodged." 
In  other  words,  as  a  recent  writer  says,  "  The 
people  and  not  the  apostles  are  the  true  ultimate 
source  of  ecclesiastical  and  ministerial  power;" 
the  Christian  ministry,  according  to  the  Protes- 
tant cry,  "  are  not  a  distinct  order  of  men ;  and 
hence  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  Christian  Priest- 
hood in  distinction  from  the  people  at  large." 
"  Every  man  his  own  priest  to  God,"  is  the  popu- 
lar cry. 

Every  man  his  own  priest  to  God,  indeed,  Mr. 
Protestant?  Nothing  between  God  and  man? 
Ah,  beloved,  do  you  not  perceive  that  Protestant- 
ism, though  it  may  not  yield  all  at  once  the  naked 
fact  of  the  spiritual  priesthood  of  Christ,  has, 
after  all,  by  this  fatal  step,  yielded  the  principle 
of  any  priesthood  whatever  ?  Do  you  not  see 
that,  with  the  vital  principle  gone,  with  the 


88  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

practical  denial  of  the  principle  rooted  in  their 
minds,  the  mere  intellectual  notion  of  Christ's 
Priesthood,  which  they  still  retain  for  a  while,  has 
been  undermined,  and  will  sooner  or  later  fall,  if 
not  in  the  first  generation,  then  in  the  second, 
third,  or  fourth  ?  It  must  logically  fall,  and,  alas, 
it  does  fall  practically  !  It  will  not  do  to  tamper 
with  that  fundamental  feature  of  God's  Church, 
namely,  the  Apostolic  ministry.  It  will  not  do  to 
raise  to  a  level  with  it  a  ministry  whose  ultimate 
source  of  authority  is  laymen  or  unauthorized 
presbyters,  instead  of  the  Holy  Apostles ;  for,  as 
the  fountain  cannot  rise  higher  than  its  spring,  the 
rearing  of  such  a  man-made  ministry  is  the  break- 
ing down  of  all  ministry  to  a  level  with  laymen ; 
and  this  is  simply  and  solely  and  logically  a  blow 
at  the  cherished  Priesthood  of  Christ  Itself. 

A  similar  course  of  remark  might  be  made  on 
the  government  of  the  Church,  which  is  the  vis- 
ible expression  on  earth  of  the  spiritual  truth  of 
the  Royalty  of  Christ,  and  which  is  the  school  in 
which  God  in  His  wisdom  has  set  us,  that  we 
may  learn  and  not  lose  the  knowledge  of  that 
prime  fact.  And  a  similar  course  of  remark  might 
be  made  on  the  Blessed  Eucharist  as  the  conserver 
of  the  fact  of  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ.  But  enough 
has  been  said  to  show  how  Protestantism  is  logi- 
cally destructive  of  Christianity. 

Think  of  the  millions  it  has  drawn  away  from 
Christ ;  think  how  it  has  sapped  the  foundations 
of  Christianity  !  My  friends,  these  are  words  not 


PEOTESTANTISM  DESTEOYS  CHEISTIANITY.      89 

calculated  to  be  popular  ;  but  they  are  words  that 
need  to  be  spoken.  When  some  poor  bewildered 
mind  goes  over  to  Home,  some  Churchmen  roll  up 
eyes  of  holy  horror ;  but  they  forget  the  vastly 
more  serious  events  that  are  taking  place  in  the 
opposite  direction.  "We  are  not  so  much  in  dan- 
ger of  superstition  as  we  are  of  skepticism.  I 
would  have  you  mark  this,  my  beloved,  I  would 
have  you  meditate  upon  it,  I  would  have  you  re- 
peat it  to  your  friends,  viz.,  that  those  exceptional 
cases  that  have  gone  to  Rome  are  as  a  single  star 
to  all  the  myriads  of  stars  in  comparison  with  the 
thousands  who  have  fallen  innocently  and  uncon- 
sciously into  the  fatal  drift  of  Protestantism,  and 
been  sucked  down  at  last  into  the  rushing  swirl 
of  Unitarianism  and  the  dreadful  vortex  of  In- 
fidelity. 

As  I  make  this  assertion,  you  will  not  under- 
stand me  as  saying  that  it  is  the  first  generation 
which  passes  out  of  the  Church  into  Protestantism 
that  runs  this  entire  career  into  Rationalism.  It 
is  only  here  and  there  that  you  find  a  person  with 
brain  enough  to  pass  the  entire  distance  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom  of  the  logical  slope.  I  could 
point  you  to  one,  whom  we  all  know  by  reputa- 
tion, that  started  as  a  high  Presbyterian,  and  has 
now  reached  the  point  of  low  Congregationalism, 
which  is  but  a  shade  above  high  Unitarianism. 
And  then  I  could  point  you  to  another,  now 
dead,  whose  fame  was  world-wide,  that  started  as 
a  young  man  at  the  point  of  high  Unitarianism, 


90  THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

and  ran  the  rest  of  the  logical  career  into  Ea- 
tionalism.  Such,  I  say,  are  rare  cases.  Nay,  it 
is,  in  general,  only  successive  generations  that  run 
the  full  career.  The  mass  of  mind  moves  slowly 
down  a  logical  slope.  But  man  is  logical,  and 
the  mass  of  mind  moves  surely  and  inevitably. 
The  Methodists,  as  a  body,  have  already  in  one 
hundred  years  moved  too  far  down  the  slope,  and 
gathered  too  much  momentum,  ever  to  come  back 
to  the  Catholic  summit  of  the  hill.  Individuals 
may  get  back,  but,  as  a  body,  Methodism  is 
doomed. 

When^  beloved,  a  mother,  leaving  our  Church, 
goes  to  Presbyterianism,  she  thinks  she  is  merely 
exchanging  one  form  of  Christianity  for  another ; 
that  it  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  venial,  a 
harmless  change.  She  has  no  idea  that  she  has 
leaped  the  immense  gulf  that  lies  between  Chris- 
tianity and  incipient  Rationalism.  But  when  she 
has  taken  the  step,  what  has  she  done  ?  She  has 
done  all  she  can  to  give  her  children  a  heritage 
of  Congregationalism,  her  grandchildren  a  heri- 
tage of  Unitarianism,  and  her  great-grandchildren 
a  heritage  of  Infidelity. 

There  are  great  warnings  against  Rome.  Well, 
Rome  is  an  evil.  But  it  is  time  the  solemn  word 
was  spoken,  and  spoken  boldly,  of  warning  against 
the  far  worse  evil  of  Protestantism.  It  is  time 
men  understood  that  Protestantism  is  an  awful 
and  most  dangerous  heresy. 


V. 


PROTESTANTISM   THE    SECOND   GREAT 
HERESY  OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  ERA. 

"  But  there  were  false  prophets  also  among  the  people,  even 
as  there  shall  be  false  teachers  among  you,  who  privily  shall  bring 
in  damnable  heresies,  even  denying  the  Lord  that  bought  them, 
and  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruction.  And  many  shall 
follow  their  pernicious  ways ;  by  reason  of  whom  the  way  of 
truth  shall  be  evil  spoken  of." — 2  PETER  ii.  1,  2. 

IN  fulfilment  of  this  prophecy,  many  heresies 
have  arisen  and  swarmed  around  Christianity. 
Each  has  had  its  venomous  sting.  But  there  are 
three  monstrous  forms  of  the  brood,  before  which 
all  the  others  are  quite  insignificant.  The  first  of 
these  was  Arianism ;  the  second  was  Protestant- 
ism ;  and  the  third  is  modern  "  Criticism,"  repre- 
sented by  Strauss,  Renan,  Colenso,  and  others. 
All  other  forms  of  heresy  struck  at  the  super- 
structure and  pinnacles  of  Christianity,  but  these 
three  enormous  heresies  have  their  bad  preemi- 
nence because  they  struck  or  strike  at  Her  very 
foundations.  For  if,  as  I  showed  in  the.  second 
discourse,  the  Bible  rests  on  the  Church,  it  is  no 
less  true  that  Christianity  rests  on  the  double  sup- 


92  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

port  of  the  Church  and  the  Bible.  Touch  either 
of  the  two,  and  Her  position  becomes  more  than 
critical,  for  She  must  fall.  Permit  me  to  change 
the  figure.  Christianity  stands  secure  behind  two 
allied  armies,  viz.,  the  Church  and  the  Bible.  As 
long  as  these  armies  mutually  support  each  other, 
and  neither  of  them  is  broken,  Christianity  is 
safe. 

Now,  so  far  as  human  ingenuity  can  conceive 
at  present,  there  are  only  three  ways  by  which 
Christianity  can  be  exposed  from  behind  Her  pro- 
tection, rendered  helpless,  and  slain:  First,  the 
Church  may  be  directly  attacked;  second,  the 
two  allied  bodies,  viz.,  the  Church  and  the  Bible, 
may  be  set  in  antagonism  with  each  other;  or 
third,  the  Bible  may  be  directly  attacked. 

Take  the  first  case.  The  Church,  as  a  visible 
organic  body,  as  the  Body  Mystical  of  Christ,  de- 
pends for  Her  very  life  upon  Christ.  Destroy  the 
God-man  within  Her,  and  you  have  struck  down 
Her  life ;  you  have  reduced  Her  to  a  dead  body, 
and  Christianity  will  fall.  This  attack  was  made 
by  the  heresiarch  Arius.  This  attack  was  the 
boldest  of  the  three  against  Christianity.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  though  Christianity  was,  humanly  speak- 
ing, in  critical  position  for  years,  the  attack  failed. 
Arius  did  not  intend  to  take  the  life  of  Christian- 
ity ;  but  he  was  none  the  less  an  heresiarch  for 
all  his  good  intentions. 

Now  take  the  second  case.  As  Christianity 
stood  secure  behind  her  two  mutually  supporting 


PKOTESTANTISM  A  HEEESY.  93 

armies,  viz.,  the  Church  and  the  Bible,  instead  of 
a  direct  attack  on  either  army,  the  two  armies 
could  be  set  fighting  each  other ;  and  so  Chris- 
tianity become  exposed.  This  was  done  by  Prot- 
estantism. This  was  the  meanest  mode  of  attack. 
I  do  not  say  that  Calvin  and  Luther  and  Zwinglius 
and  the  rest  of  them  intended  to  destroy  Chris- 
tianity any  more  than  Arius  did.  Yery  far  from 
it.  But  they  were  none  the  less  heresiarchs  for 
that.  For,  brethren,  we  are  looking  at  the  whole 
movement  from  a  stand-point  where  we  can  take 
in  both  worlds  at  once — this  world  and  the  world 
beneath.  And  we  must  judge  such  movements 
by  their  logical  and  historical  results,  and  not 
merely  by  the  good  motives  of  the  men  who  were 
engaged  in  them.  It  was  none  the  less  disastrous 
to  the  patient  whose  eye  was  put  out,  that  the 
bungling  oculist  only  sought  to  remove  an  irri- 
tating particle.  We  must  consider  the  disastrous 
effects  of  the  Continental  Reformation  on  the 
souls  of  men  to-day,  if  we  would  get  at  the  other 
cause  that  was  operating  in  it  besides  the  men 
who  trod  the  earth.  Protestantism  made  an  ally 
of  the  Bible,  and  with  it  flew  at  the  Church  to 
destroy  Her.  I  do  not  deny  that  the  Church 
needed  reforming.  But  a  call  for  reformation  is 
very  different  from  a  call  for  destruction.  Satan, 
however,  saw  his  advantage,  and  picked  his  men. 
I  do  not  acquit  the  obstinacy  of  the  Ultra-mon- 
tanism  of  the  day.  It  was  maddening  to  the 
other  party  ;  and  doubtless  Satan  had  something 


94      THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

to  do  with.  it.  But  it  was  in  order  that  he  might 
use  it  to  fire  up  Protestantism  as  his  main  engine 
of  evil.  Suffice  it  to  say,  Protestantism,  making 
an  ally  of  the  Bible,  succeeded,  not  in  reforming 
the  Church,  but  in  attacking  and  destroying  Her 
in  many  lands.  And  so  we  have  the  sad  spectacle 
of  a  prostrate  Christianity  in  those  lands. 

The  Evening  Post,  in  its  last  evening's  issue, 
in  speaking  of  the  "  Aspects  of  Religious  Life  in 
Germany,"  says:  "A  letter  on  this  subject  ap- 
pears in  the  Methodist,  written  by  Rev.  Abel 
Stevens,  a  leading  scholar  of  his  denomination, 
who  has  taken  great  pains  to  become  familiarly 
acquainted  with  the  domestic  and  inner  life  of  the 
people  of  Germany.  He  confesses  that,  after  five 
visits,  and  much  careful  observation,  living  in 
many  families,  and  travelling  on  foot  among  the 
villages,  he  does  not  yet  fairly  understand  their 
religious  condition."  But,  brethren,  the  rest  of 
the  world  are  beginning  to  understand  it,  and  to 
brand  its  cause  with  the  mark  it  deserves.  I  con- 
tinue the  quotation :  "  Their  country,"  says  this 
reverend  gentleman,  "  is  studded  with  antique 
churches;  their  history  is  full  of  religious  achieve- 
ments ;  their  traditions  full  of  religious  legends ; 
their  universities  rife  with  religious  polemics ;  but 
there  is  apparently  no  religious  life  in  the  heart 
of  the  race,  if  you  except  the  peculiar  little  parties 
of  pietists,  Moravians,  and  Methodists,  who  really 
are  exceptional  to  the  whole  modern  genius  of  the 
people.  Indifference  to  all  vital  religion  seems  to 


PEOTESTANTISM  A  HERESY.  95 

be  a  characteristic  of  the  mass  of  the  Germanic 
race.  They  appear  to  have  exhausted  their  old 
interest  in  it,  after  so  many  struggles  and  revolu- 
tions of  opinion  and  criticism,  and  now  turn  away 
froni  it  as  if  tired  of  it,  and  waiting  for  something 
new  as  a  substitute."  He  thinks  that  "  religious 
indifference  is  the  leading  characteristic  of  the 
masses,  as  free-thinking  and  materialism  are  of 
the  cultivated  classes,  and  that  between  them  re- 
ligious life  has  mostly  died  out.  Few  of  the  men 
ever  go  to  church,  and  few  religious  forms  remain 
in  families,  while  Sunday  has  become  a  holiday, 
on  which  the  bier-garten  is  the  chief  place  of  re- 
sort." 

Brethren,  add  Switzerland  to  Germany,  and 
call  to  mind,  as  a  type-fact  of  the  state  of  things 
there,  that  Calvin's  own  parish  is  in  the  very  dregs 
of  Unitarianism,  and  that  the  very  pulpit  from 
which  that  violent  man  thundered  is  now  occu- 
pied by  a  Rationalist.  Add  New  England,  and 
count  the  "  Orthodox  Congregational "  Societies 
that  have  gone  over  as  bodies  to  Unitarianism  in 
the  past  century,  and  then  count  the  Unitarian 
parishes  that  have  gone  down  to  Ultra-Parkerism. 
There  are  fossil  Unitarians  in  New  England ;  there 
are  reactionary  Unitarians  ;  but  the  real  thinkers 
and  the  great  body  of  the  laymen  are  going  where 
logic  points,  and  are  to-day  out-Parkering  Parker 
himself  in  their  denial  of  Christianity.  The  latter 
class  command,  at  least,  our  respect  for  their  con- 
sistency. The  reactionary  class  may  inspire  us 


96  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

with  hope ;  but  the  fossils  are  unworthy  of  men- 
tion. 

Now,  brethren,  if  Unitarianisrn  started  simply 
with  the  view  of  teaching  a  better  idea  of  God 
than  had  been  taught,  but  without  the  slightest 
design  of  destroying  the  Bible,  and  if  it  has  re- 
sulted (as  indeed  it  has)  in  logically  producing  a 
Theodore  Parker  school  of  thought  destructive  of 
the  Bible,  then  it  is  very  evident  that  Unitarian- 
ism,  considered  as  a  preserver  of  the  Bible,  is  a 
failure.  So,  equally,  if  Protestantism  started  with 
the  view  of  preserving  Christianity,  but  only  of 
teaching  a  better  system  of  Christianity  than  that 
taught  by  the  Church  Catholic,  and  if  it  ends  logi- 
cally in  destroying  fundamental  Christian  truth, 
and  historically  in  plunging  the  vast  majority  of 
thinking  men,  in  the  lands  where  it  has  had  sway, 
into  skepticism  and  mere  natural  religion,  then 
surely  Protestantism  as  a  system  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  Christianity  is  a  consummate  failure,  an 
awful  cheat,  a  delusion  for  souls.  By  all  sound 
logic  Protestantism  ought  to  go  down  into  Uni- 
tarianism,  and  then  Unitarian  ism  die  out  in  Par- 
kerism  and  bald  Rationalism.  Now,  if  this  logical 
anticipation  stood  alone,  unfortified  by  historical 
fact,  persons  might  be  justified  in  feeling  that, 
however  fair  the  logic  looked,  there  might  be 
some  flaw  in  it  somewhere.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
regardless  of  any  logical  anticipation,  it  had  his- 
torically happened  that  peoples,  once  Protestant, 
had  each  somehow  or  other  become  Rationalistic, 


PROTESTANTISM  A  HERESY.  97 

then  we  might  be  justified  in  saying  that  perhaps 
it  ought  not  to  have  been  so  logically,  but  that 
some  other  cause  came  in  to  send  them  down  and 
out  of  Christianity.  But  where  logic  anticipates 
the  historical  issue,  and  the  historical  fact  con- 
firms the  logical  anticipation,  the  case  is  about 
closed.  If  Protestantism  has  not  signally  failed 
in  preserving  Christianity,  then  pray  where  has 
it  succeeded  ? 

Don't  point  me  to  advance  in  science,  and  edu- 
cation, and  invention ;  all  that  isn't  Protestant- 
ism. Electricity,  and  the  needle-gun,  and  the 
education  of  the  masses,  and  such  like,  are  as  con- 
sistent with  the  spirit  and  prevalence  of  Catholi- 
city as  they  are  with  the  spirit  and  prevalence  of 
Protestantism.  Nor  do  I  assert  that  Protestant- 
ism was  an  unmitigated  evil.  Satan  is  always 
ready  to  give  away  a  sixpence  worth  of  good,  if 
under  the  cover  of  such  generosity  he  can  gain  a 
dollar's  worth  of  evil.  Then,  again,  do  not  re- 
gard me  as  condemning  persons.  There  is  a  dif- 
ference between  condemning  persons  and  con- 
demning their  systems.  Persons  are  to  be  judged 
by  their  motives ;  systems  by  their  results.  To 
stab  Christianity  to  the  heart  was  the  very  last 
thing  Calvin  and  Luther  intended  to  do.  But 
that  the  result  of  their  principles  is  logically,  and 
has  been  historically,  what  I  state,  is  patent. 
That  there  will  be  some — mere  creatures  of  pre- 
judice, and  blind  as  bats ;  and  that  there  will  be 
others — moved  by  social  and  public  position,  who 
5 


98  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

will  not  see  all  this,  and  who  will  be  either  pro 
voked  at  the  assertion  that  Protestantism  has 
failed,  or  will  for  a  time  pass  the  matter  over 
with  a  supercilious  smile,  is  to  be  expected.  They 
are  to  be  pitied.  They  do  not  know  the  earth- 
quake forces  that  are  working  under  them.  For  I 
am  stating  to  you,  brethren,  simply  what  thou- 
sands upon  thousands  (I  do  not  exaggerate), 
here  and  across  the  water,  have  been  feeling  for  a 
long  time — namely,  that  Protestantism  is  Satan 
clothed  in  the  garments  of  light.  Brethren,  you 
are  going  to  see  Unitarianism  grow  into  a  large 
body ;  for  it  is  destined  to  fatten  and  grow  huge 
for  a  time  on  the  carcass  of  dying  Trinitarian 
Protestantism.  The  mission  of  Unitarianism  as  a 
destroyer  is  not  yet  closed  on  earth. 

Thus  Arianism  attacked  one  of  the  foundations 
of  Christianity,  viz.,  the  Church.  Protestantism 
set  the  two  foundations,  viz.,  Bible  and  Church, 
a-knocking  against  each  other.  I  repeat,  so  far 
as  human  ingenuity  can  at  present  conceive,  only 
one  more  really  great  heretical  antagonist  to 
Christianity  is  possible,  namely,  an  antagonist 
that  shall  make  a  direct  assault  on  the  Bible. 
This  last  assault  has  now  been  commenced  by  the 
Critical  School  of  France,  Germany,  and  England. 
If  the  first  was  the  boldest  attack,  and  the  second 
the  meanest,  this  third  and  last  is  the  most  intel- 
lectual and  respectable.  Arianism  is  dead  (for 
modern  Unitarians  are  not  Arians) ;  Protestantism 
is  dying  by  inches,  and  "  Criticism  "  is  rising  to 


PEOTESTANTISM  A  ELEKESY.-  99 

be  our  real,  robust,  and  dangerous  foe.  The  rise 
of  the  "  Critical  School "  is  not  strange.  Alas, 
poor  Protestantism,  that  very  Private  Judgment, 
which  she  summoned  up  to  rush  at  and  destroy 
the  Church,  now  made  strong  by  exercise,  and 
bold  by  petting  and  encouragement,  turns  to  tear 
her  Bible  with  its  talons,  and  prey  upon  her  own 
bosom.  The  very  rise  of  these  two  determined 
and  already  large  schools,  viz. :  the  Catholic  and 
the  Infidel  Free  Thinking,  and  their  common  re- 
coil away  from  Protestantism,  the  former  in  the 
direction  of  the  old  defences,  where  Church  and 
Bible  can  stand  together  and  impregnable,  and 
the  latter  in  the  direction  -of  an  earnest,  honest, 
but  blind  clutching  after  truth,  is  an  additional 
evidence  of  the  failure  of  Protestantism  as  a  sys- 
tem. Permit  me  here  to  quote  the  language  of  a 
late  English  article  which  I  read  day  before  yes- 
terday, and  which  is  in  exact  accord  with  what  I 
have  said  in  this  course  of  sermons.  "  There  can 
be,"  the  writer  says,  "  only  Catholic  Christianity 
and  nationalism;  only  those  who  fall  back  on 
that  point  of  Church  authority  abandoned  at  the 
Reformation,  or  those  who  seek  out  a  new  basis 
for  the  reconstruction  of  religion.  That  a  few 
will  hold  on  still  to  what  is  demonstrably  unten- 
able is  only  what  is  to  be  expected.  But  it  will 
be  only  those  mentally  incapacitated  for  realizing 
the  weakness  of  their  position,  or  those  who  allow 
their  reason  to  be  distorted  by  their  prejudice. 
The  vast  majority  of  intelligent  persons  are  al- 


100  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

ready  convinced  that  Christianity  must  have  some 
other  hold-fast  than  Scripture  alone,  if  the  Faith 
is  not  to  be  swept  away  into  the  ocean  of  unbe- 
lief." 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  signs  of  the  times 
is  a  wide-spread  yearning  for  unity.  Catholics 
both  in  England  and  America  are  holding  out  the 
olive-branch  to  the  Methodists ;  and  other  analo- 
gous movements  are  taking  place  both  in  Rome 
and  in  the  Greek  Church.  I  have  already  called 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  while  Protestant- 
ism has  no  common  creed,  the  Catholic  Church, 
however  her  parts  may  differ  from  each  other,  has, 
underneath  those  differences,  a  common  Creed,  a 
common  Ministry,  and  common  Sacraments.  For 
our  Church  does  not  assert  that  there  are  "  only 
two  Sacraments;"  but  that  there  are  two  only 
which  are  generically  necessary  to  salvation.  She 
gives  to  the  other  five  the  title  of  "  Sacraments  " 
also.  Now,  here,  in  this  common  Ministry,  faith 
and  Sacraments,  is  the  sole  basis  of  any  unity  that 
is  possible  in  Christendom.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  all  the  parts,  Greek,  Roman,  and  Anglican, 
should  shape  themselves  after  one  precise  pattern. 
This  would  be  a  unity  of  simplicity,  not  the  larger, 
more  developed  unity  of  multiplexity.  This  would 
be  the  unity  of  the  seed,  not  the  great  complex 
unity  of  the  tree.  It  is  not  necessary  that  there 
be  one  ritual  for  all.  Men  are  of  different  races. 
There  is  the  ardent  Slavonic,  the  less  warm  Latin, 
and  the  comparatively  cold  Anglican.  Each  has 


PEOTESTANTISM  A  HERESY. 

liis  own  tastes  and  instincts,  and  religious  de- 
mands. A  ritual  which,  to  us,  would  be  glorious 
with  ceremonial,  would  chill  an  Eastern,  or  Greek, 
to 'death  with  its  apparent  coldness.  He  needs 
more  to  express  the  same  thing  than  we  do.  "Why 
should  one  race  of  men  impose  its  ritual  on  an- 
other? Our  truths  are  deeper  than  our  rituals. 
We  want  no  rigid  uniformity  either  in  manner  or 
thought  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Our  faith,  Min- 

O 

istry,  and  Sacraments,  are  one  already.  All  that 
we  lack  is  such  modification  in  doctrine,  in  each 
of  the  parts,  as  will  enable  a  restoration  of  inter- 
communion to  take  place  between  the  three,  a 
mutual  recognition  again  between  the  brothers  of 
the  same  one  family,  and  common  organic  action 
against  the  common  enemy,  the  world.  "We  want 
a  recognition  of  the  unity  between  the  parts ;  not 
an  absorption  of  either  part  into  another.  Exces- 
sive legislation  on  small  points,  the  miserable  de- 
sire to  be  perpetually  tinkering,  and  over-sensitive- 
ness on  minor  differences,  have  been  the  vices  of 
the  Church  Catholic.  "We  forget  that  there  is  a 
great  body  of  general  health  in  Her,  which  will  in 
time  throw  off  poisonous  secretions  if  the  latter 
are  let  quietly  alone. 

But  all  this  brings  me  to  another  point.  I 
showed  in  the  second  sermon  of  this  course,  that 
while  Protestantism  gets  the  Church  from  the 
Bible,  Catholicity  gets  the  Bible  from  the  Church. 
But  their  ideas  are  radically  different  as  to  what 
the  Church  is.  The  Protestant  notion  is,  that 


102  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

"  a  Cliurcli  is  an  aggregation  of  individuals  who 
hold  in  common  a  certain  theological  system 
gathered  out  of  the  Scripture."  Thus  the  basis 
of  their  unity  is  intellect.  With  them  Sacraments 
are  not,  as  we  are  taught  by  our  Prayer  Book,  in- 
struments by  which  God  doth  work  invisibly  in 
us ;  but  they  are  rather  "  seals  and  pledges  of  a 
grace  that  has  already  been  given."  Protestant- 
ism makes  "  an  intellectual  process  called  faith, 
and  a  mental  conviction  called  apprehension  of 
Christ  by  faith,  to  be  the  means  of  effecting 
a  union  between '  the  individual  and  Christ." 
Therefore  it  were  a  mere  form  to  baptize  in- 
fants. But  with  Catholicism,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Church  is  not  a  mere  aggregation  of  intellec- 
tually-consenting individuals,  each  of  whom  has 
passed  through  this  intellectual  process  and  had 
this  mental  conviction.  But  the  Church  is  a  Liv- 
ing Body,  having  a  corporate  Head ;  a  Visible 
Body  with  an  Invisible  Life.  That  Life,  that 
Soul  of  the  Church,  is  Christ.  He  moves  over  the 
earth  in  His  Body  mystical,  and  is  as  really  pres- 
ent, and  acting,  and  speaking,  to-day  in  that  Body, 
as  He  was  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  when  He 
was  on  earth  in  His  Body  natural.  We  call  you 
to  no  merely  intellectual  accord  with  a  Being 
of  long  ago.  We  call  you  to  no  mere  memory  of 
a  Being  who  passed  away  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago.  Catholicity  has  not  dropped  Christ  into  the 
past,  and  lost  Him  as  a  real  existence,  retaining 
simply  a  memory  and  an  intellectual  conception 


PKOTESTANTISM  A  HEEESY.  1Q3 

of  Him.  She  still  has  Him.  She  gives  you  the 
very  Being  at  whose  feet  St.  Mary  sat.  He  is 
here  now  in  His  Body  Mystical,  still  going  forth 
to  you,  still  ready  to  feed  you.  With  Catholicity 
the  members  of  the  Body  Mystical  are  grafted  into 
Its  divine  life  by  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism,  which 
was  divinely  appointed  to  that  end ;  and  they  par- 
take of  Its  divine  life  unto  their  spiritual  develop- 
ment, through  Its  means  of  grace,  and  especially 
Its  Blessed  Eucharist.  Catholicity  holds  that  the 
union  with  Christ  thus  supernaturally  effected  by 
God  in  baptism  is  "  irrespective  of  any  exercise 
of  the  intellect,  but  is  a  free  gift  of  God,"  where 
there  is  no  bar ;  and  that,  therefore,  infants  may 
and  should  be  baptized.  Thus  the  Catholic  is  a 
spiritual  not  an  intellectual  system.  Its  basis  of 
unity  is  Christ,  and  not  man's  intellect.  The 
Catholic,  I  say,  holds  that  Christ  is  really  within 
the  Church,  and  that  life  and  truth  are  to  spread 
from  Him  through  His  Body  Mystical  on  earth. 
Furthermore,  the  Catholic  holds  that,  "  in  order  to 
the  extension  and  communication  of  this  spiritual 
life  and  grace,  our  Lord  appointed  a  ministry  in 
His  Church,  whose  office  is  to  administer  the  means 
of  grace  to  its  members  ;  and  that  He  appointed 
the  Apostles  to  this  office  with  power  to  transmit 
their  commission  to  others  in  an  orderly  way,  as 
the  needs  of  the  Body  required,"  and  so  on  till  the 
end  of  time.  This  is  another  distinction  between 
Catholicity  and  Protestantism.  I  take  it  I  need 
do  no  other  than  simply  refer  you  to  your  Prayer 


104  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

Book,  and  leave  you  to  decide  whether  our  Church 
is  Protestant  or  Catholic. 

In  conclusion,  "  The  Church  has  authority  in 
matters  of  faith,"  says  the  Prayer  Book.  "  Nay," 
says  Protestantism,  "  the  individual  judgment  hath 
authority  in  matters  of  faith ;  and,  if  one  of  '  our 
churches  '  does  not  harmonize  in  its  faith  with  my 
notions,  I  have  a  perfect  right  to  shake  off  the 
dust  from  my  feet  at  its  doors,  and  go  forth  and 
organize  another  'Church.'"  And  so  he  has, 
brethren ;  so  he  has ;  we  don't  deny  that.  One 
human  institution  is  as  good  as  another,  and 
all  together,  so  far  as  the  salvation  of  souls  five 
hundred  years  hence  is  concerned,  are  not  worth 
the  paper  their  constitutions  and  long  declara- 
tions of  doctrine  are  written  upon.  It  doesn't 
take  many  centuries  for  the  whole  pack  of  them 
to  tumble  over  each  other  down  into  the  valley  of 
oblivion.*  So  he  has,  I  repeat,  a  perfect  right  to 

*  Below  is  a  list  of  sects  (by  no  means  a  complete  list)  which 
have  buzzed  about  the  Catholic  Church.  Some  of  them  grew  to 
enormous  size  in  their  day,  and  lasted  several  centuries ;  but  their 
names  even  sound  strangely  to  modern  ears.  The  numbers  indi- 
cate the  centuries  in  which  the  sects  arose : 

1  Dpcithians.  2  Abelites. 

1  Nicolaitans.  2  Colarbasians. 

1  Saturninians.  2  Cerdonians. 

2  Millennarians.  2  Ossenians. 
2  Basilides.  2  Marcionites. 
2  Epiphanians.  2  Proclianites. 

2  Hydroparasites.  2  Serpentinians. 

2  Melitonians.  '  2  Cainites. 
2  Saccophori.  2  Valentinians. 

2  Severians.  2  Cerinthians. 

Ophites.  2  Nazareans. 


Up 
Ale 


!ogi.  2  Apotactics. 


PKOTESTANTISM  A  HEEESY. 


105 


go  forth  and  organize  another  "  Church."  And 
thus  we  have  a  "  Church  "  organized  by  LUTHEK, 
and  another  "  Church  "  organized  by  CALVIN,  and 
another  "  Church  "  organized  by  CAMPBELL,  and 


2  Montanists. 
2  Adamites. 
2  Materialists. 
2  Arcbontics. 
2-  Ebionites. 
2  Marcites. 
2  Antitactae. 
2  Elxaites. 
2  Alogians. 
2  Hermogenians. 
2  Ascodrogites. 
2  Ascodrutes. 
2  Encratites. 
2  Carpocratians. 
2  Bardesamites. 
2  Artemonites. 
2  Artotyrites. 
2  Marcellans. 
2  Ascetics. 
2  Setbians. 
2  Lucianists. 
2  Quintilians. 
2  Florinians. 
2  Elcesaites. 

2  Patripassians. 

3  Novatians. 

3  Passaloryncbites. 
3  Eternals. 
3  Asclepidoteans. 
3  Noetians. 
3  Paulianists. 
3  Athocians. 
3  Apocarites. 
3  Beryllians. 
3  Manichseans. 
3  Hieracites.  . 
3  Adelphians. 
3  Aquijinians. 
3  Arabians. 
3  Valetians. 

3  Solitaries. 

4  Eusebians. 
4  Psathyrians. 
4  Heloidans. 

4  Vigilantians. 
4  Luciferians. 
4  Jovinianists. 

5* 


4  Heracleonites. 

4  Macedonians. 

4  Incorruptible  s. 

4  Collutluans. 

4  Arians. 

4  Pneumato-Macliists. 

4  Apollinarians. 

4  Accacians. 

4  Serai-Arians. 

4  Meletians. 

4  Priscillianists. 

4  Tascodrugitas. 

4  Messalians  or  Enchites. 

4  Photinians. 

4  Donatists. 

4  Anthropomorphites. 

4  Docetae. 

4  Psaltyrians. 

4  Anomoeans. 

4  Audseans. 

4  Eudoxians. 

4  Eunomians. 

4  Assuritans. 

4  Satamans. 

4  Collyridians. 

4  Eustathians. 

4  Abelonians. 

4  Euphratesians. 

4  Aerians. 

4  Sabellians. 

4  -iEtians. 

•5  Nestorians. 

5  Coelicolae. 
5  Angelites. 
5  Patricians. 

5  Theopaschites. 
5  Pelagians. 
5  Eutychians. 

5  Monopbysites. 

6  Serai-Pelagians. 
5  Mopsuetians. 

5  Acepbali. 
5  Armenians. 

5  Predestinarians. 

6  Acoemetse.  I 
6  Agnoites. 

6  Barsanians. 


106 


THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 


another  "  Church  "  organized  by  GEORGE  Fox,  and  a 
great  many  others,  organized  by  I  know  not  whom. 
But  in  the  language  of  a  venerable  presbyter  of 
Massachusetts,  "  I  have  somewhere  read  that  the 


6  Tritheites. 
6  Corrupticolae. 
6  Gaiamtse. 
6  Paulicians. 
6  Damianists. 

6  Cononites. 

7  Chazinzarians. 
7  Ethnophrones. 
7  Agynians. 

7  Maronites. 
7  Agonyclitse. 

7  Monothelites. 

8  Albanenses. 

8  Adoptionists. 

9  Abrahamites. 

10  Paterines. 

11  Berengarians. 

12  Pasagmians. 
12  Albigenses. 
12  Waldenses. 

12  Tanguelinians. 
12  Gazares. 
12  Henricians. 
12  Leucopetrians. 
12  Bogomiles. 
12  Apostles. 

12  Circumcelliones. 

13  Wilhelminians. 
13  Almericians. 
13  Flagellants. 

13  Carthari. 

13  Bethlehemites. 

13  Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the 

Free  Spirit. 

14  Wickliffites. 
14  Dulcinists. 
14  Barlaamites. 
14  Dancers. 

14  Albati. 

14  Quietists. 

15  Adiaphorists. 
15  Hussites. 

15  Calixtines. 

15  Orevites. 

15  Orphans. 

15  Taberites. 

15  Bchemian  Brethren. 


15  White  Brethren. 

16  Brownists. 
16  Flemingians. 
16  Erastians. 
16  Budnseans. 
16  Davidists. 
16  Effronites. 
16  Socinians. 
16  Interimists. 
16  Libertines. 
16  Farnovians. 
16  Erquinians. 

16  Schwenkfeldians. 

16  Petro-brussians. 

16  Stancarists. 

16  Flacians. 

16  Carolostadians. 

16  Philipists. 

16  Petro-ioannites. 

16  Osiandrians. 

16  Alascani. 

16  Arminians. 

16  Synergists. 

16  ubiquitarians. 

16  Autosiandrians. 

16  Zwinglians. 

16  Sub-Lapsarians. 

16  Supra-Lapsarians. 

16  Amsdorfians. 

16  Galenists. 

16  Majorists. 

16  Lutherans. 

16  Gomerists. 

16  Hoffmanians. 

16  Illuminati. 

16  Independents. 

16  Anabaptists. 

16  Presbyterians. 

16  Imperfect  Mennonites. 

16  Perfect  Mennonites. 

17  Antinomians. 
17  Eosicrucians. 
17  Eanters. 

17  Beddelians. 

General     Baptist. 

Particular         " 
17  Anti-Mission  " 


PROTESTANTISM  A  HERESY. 


107 


Church  was  organized  by  Christ."  Such  persons 
overlook  the  very  gist  of  the  whole  matter.  Christ 
Jesus  is  still  on  earth  in  His  Body  Mystical. 
Private  judgment  is  all  very  well  and  proper  so 


17  Free-Will  Baptist. 

nil-Day 

6-Principle      " 

Scottish 

River  Brethren. 

Christian  Connection. 

Campbellites. 

Winnebrenarians. 
17  Borrelists. 
17  Collegiants. 
17  5th  Monarchyrnen. 
17  Drabicians. 
17  Seekers. 
17  Cocceians. 
17  Se  Baptists. 
17  Muggfetonians. 
17  Bourignonists. 
17  Crypto  Calvinists. 
17  Amyraldists. 
17  Apostoolians. 
17  Rogerines. 
17  Cornarists. 
17  Waterlandians. 
17  Anti-Burghers. 
17  Cameronians. 
17  Haldanites. 
17  Labadists. 
17  Keithians. 
17  Gortonians. 
17  Lampetians. 

17  Quakers. 
Moravians. 
Nicolites. 

18  Inghamites. 
18  Leadlyans. 
18  Allemtes. 

18  Lifters,  or  New  Lights. 

18  Anti-Lifters,  or  Old  Lights. 

18  Reanointers. 

18  Southcottians. 

18  Hopkinsians. 

18  Shaking  Quakers. 

18  Hattemists. 

Scotch  Presbyterian  Seceders. 

Original  Seceders. 

Old  Light  Seceders. 
18  The  Three  Denominations. 


18  Destructionists. 

18  Free  Thinkers. 

18  Baxterians. 

18  Sandemanians. 

18  Dissidents. 

18  Ellerians. 

18  Separates. 

18  Wilkinsonians. 

18  Bereans. 

18  Ayig_nonists. 

18  Disciplinarians. 

18  Dunkers. 

18  Daleites. 

18  Calvinistic  Methodists. 

18  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

18  Swedenborgians. 

18  New  Connection  Methodists. 

RECENT. 

Millerites. 

Carbonari. 

Hicksites. 

Gurneyites. 

Wilberites. 

New  School  Presbyterians. 

Old  School  Presbyterians. 

United  Presbyterians. 

Associate  Eeformed  Presbyte- 
rians. 

Methodist  Church,  South,  Black. 

Methodist  Church,  South, White. 

Cumberland  Presbyterian. 

United  Synod  of  Presbyterian 
Church. 

Mormons. 

Methodist  Reformers. 

Primitive  Methodist. 

Central 

Independent 

Free- 
Protestant 

Evang.  Asso. 

Bryanites. 

Whitefield  Methodist,  Taber- 
nacle Connection. 

Whitefield  Methodist,  Lady 
Huntington  Connection. 


108 


THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 


long  as  God  keeps  silence.  Let  it  have  full  reign. 
But  when  Jesus  Himself  speaks  through  His  Body 
Mystical,  it  is  time  for  private  judgment  to  yield 
and  be  a  little  humble. 


Whitefield  Methodist,~Welsh  Cal- 
vinistic  Connection. 

Parkerites  (?). 

Irvingites. 

Associate  Synod  of  North  Amer- 
ica. 

Associate  Eeform  Synod  of  the 
South. 

Free  Presbyterian  Synod. 

Second  Adventists. 


BESIDES   THE  ABOVE. 

Dutch  Eefonned. 

Marcosians. 

German  Eeformed  Church. 

Eellyan  Universalists. 

Monarchians. 

Strigolniks. 

Anti-Sabbatarians. 

Unitarians. 


Appstolics. 
Universalists. 
Eestorationists. 
Christians. 
Halcyons. 
Bonosians. 
Caputiati. 
Harmonists. 
Lollards. 
Ebadians. 
Epefanoftschins. 
Ortlibenses. 
German  Evang.  Union. 
Diaconoftschins. 
Bezpopoftschins. 
And    others    too    numerous    to 
mention. 


Surely  Sectarianism  has  tried 
often  enough  to  found  a  last- 
ing form  oi  the  Church. 


VI. 

CATHOLICITY  AND  ITS  PRESENTMENT 
OF  CHRISTIANITY,  AS  OPPOSED  TO 
THE  PRESENTMENT  MADE  BY  PROTES- 
TANTISM. 

"  Hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words." — 2  TIM.  i.  13. 

I  RESUME  the  consideration  of  our  main  topic. 
The  next  step  for  us  to  take  is  to  begin  to  develop 
what  should  be  urged  on  the  attention  both  of 
the  masses  and  of  the  cultivated  intellect  of  the 
day  instead  of  Protestantism.  What  the  world 
needs  is  neither  Protestantism  nor  Rome,  but 
Catholicity,  the  reasonable  Catholic  faith,  the 
beautiful  Catholic  system,  the  warm,  devoted, 
self-sacrificing  Catholic  spirit.  What  we  want  is 
less  blind  and  foolish  prejudice  against  Rome, 
that  we  may  go  to  Her  and  learn  why  it  is,  and 
by  what  Catholic  means  it  is,  that  She  succeeds 
in  all  that  in  which  She  does  succeed ;  and  less 
prejudice  in  Rome  against  the  real  and  legitimate 
advance  of  the  nineteenth  century  (pardon  the 
vagueness  of  this  phrase),  in  order  that  She  may 
learn  why  it  is  that  She  fails  in  some  respects. 
We  need  more  of  the  Catholic  spirit  of  our  Church 


HO  THE  FAILUBE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

brought  out;  Rome  needs  the  errors  which  are 
merely  accidental  to  Her  system  abolished,  that 
we  may  both  together  move  with  crushing  mo- 
mentum, first  upon  the  Protestant  outworks,  and 
then  upon  the  infidel  citadel  itself.  If  Protes- 
tantism has  lost  its  hold  on  the  masses,  Romanism 
has  equally  lost  its  hold  on  the  intellect  of  the 
day.  "We  want  less  preaching  of  generalities, 
about  what  is,  after  all,  mere  natural  goodness, 
and  more  of  positive,  dogmatic  teaching  that  shall 
be  distinctively  Christian. 

Now,  first,  what  is  this  Catholic  faith  that  I 
speak  of  ?  The  word  "  Catholic "  means  uni- 
versal. Where  am  I  to  find  that  Catholic  faith, 
then  ?  Suppose  I  go  to  the  Methodists  and  ask 
them  for  their  "Faith"  and  its  concomitants. 
They  would  tell  me  of  the  foreknowledge  of 
God;  they  would  point  me  to  their  class-meet- 
ings and  their  class-leaders.  But  I  should  look  in 
vain  for  all  this  in  Italy,  in  Russia,  in  Spain,  in 
South  America,  in  Austria.  And  I  should  soon 
discover  that  the  Methodists  were  a  mere  local 
body.  Suppose,  then,  I  should  go  to  the  Presby- 
terians. They  would  tell  me  of  Fore-ordination 
and  Absolute  Decree;  they  would  point  me  to 
their  ruling  Elders  and  their  Presbyteries.  I 
should  find  all  this  different  from  Methodism- 
And,  moreover,  I  should  find  that  the  Presby 
terian  was  merely  a  local  body  also.  Suppose  1 
should  go  to  the  Quakers.  They  would  point  me 
to  their  want  of  sacraments  and  of  an  ordained 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUECH  AND  FAITH. 

ministry,  and  to  their  silent  meetings.  Here  is 
something  different  still.  Well,  leaving  all  such, 
suppose  I  should  come  to  our  Church.  She  would 
point  me,  among  other  things,  to  her  Thirty-nine 
Articles.  I  find  that  these  are  different  from  the 
Baptist  or  Congregational  or  Methodist  declara- 
tions of  faith.  I  should,  moreover,  look  in  vain 
for  the  Anglican  Church  per  se  in  Sweden,  in 
Brazil,  or  in  Hungary.  Suppose,  then,  I  should 
go  to  the  Roman  Church.  She  would  point  me, 
among  other  things,  to  her  Tridentine  decrees 
and  her  Papal  supremacy.  But  I  should  look  in 
vain  for  all  this  through  Eussia  or  Siberia.  I 
should  find  her  also  local  as  a  body.  It  is  clear  I 
have  gone  the  round  world  over  and  have  not 
reached  yet  any  faith  that  is  Catholic.  I  find 
divisions  in  Christendom — schism.  The  complete 
set  of  dogmas  and  of  corresponding  practice,  as 
presented  by  any  one  of  these  bodies,  is  not  ac- 
cepted by  all  the  rest. 

But  now  suppose  it  should  happen  that  all 
Christendom  to-day  could  agree  in  one  faith, 
would  you  not  call  that  the  Catholic  faith  ?  I 
suppose  you  would.  But,  beloved,  suppose  that 
faith  should  happen  to  be  different  from  the  faith 
as  held  in  mediseval  times,  or  as  held  in  the  fourth 
or  the  first  century,  then  it  would  not  be  the 
Catholic  faith.  For  there  are  two  kinds  of  schism, 
viz.,  the  schism  of  space  and  the  schism  of  time. 
In  the  Church  of  to-day  one  body  of  Christians 
may  be  cut  off  by  schism  from  another.  But 


THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISH. 

schism  may  at  least  be  conceived  as  equally  ex- 
isting between  the  entire  body  of  Christians  to- 
day, and  the  entire  body  in  the  eighth  century, 
whereby  the  former  body  are  cut  off  -from  the 
latter.  And  all  schism  is  sin. 

Thus  you  will  see  our  faith  may  be  local  in 
time  as  well  as  in  space.  That  only  which  has 
been  held  everywhere,  always,  and  by  all,  is  the 
Catholic  faith.  Here,  then,  we  have  reached  our 
first  approximation  toward  what  we  seek;  that 
is  to  say,  the  Catholic  faith  is  that  which  is  held 
everywhere,  always,  and  by  all. 

Now  let  us  start  on  our  second  approximation. 
Is  there  any  point,  in  Faith,  Doctrine,  or  Practice, 
that  has  been  agreed  upon  everywhere,  always, 
and  by  all  who  call  themselves  Christians  ?  Noth- 
ing under  the  sun.  Justification?  Churchmen 
differ  from  Lutherans.  Election  ?  Calvinists 
differ  from  Methodists.  The  Ministry  ?  Baptists 
differ  from  Catholics.  Sacraments?  The  Qua- 
kers do  not  have  them.  The  Bible  ?  Some  hold 
to  the  whole,  others  only  to  a  part.  God  Him- 
self ?  Unitarians  hold  to  one,  Trinitarians  hold 
to  another.  We  would  seem  to  be  as  far  from 
what  we  want  as  ever.  But  not  so  far  as  it  seems. 
For  there  is  either  a  Catholic  faith,  or  there  is  not ; 
that  is  to  say,  there  is  something  for  man  to  rest 
in,  or  there  is  absolutely  nothing.  It  were  a  most 
unreasonable  supposition  that  God,  after  working 
out  that  splendid  series  of  supernatural  events 
which  began  in  Abraham,  continued  through  the 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUKCH  AND  FAITH. 

acts  of  Moses,  the  organization  of  the  typical 
Jewish  Church,  the  foretellings  of  the  prophets, 
the  incarnation  of  His  Son,  His  death  and  resur- 
rection, the  establishment  of  His  Chnrch,  the  de- 
scent of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  It,  the  continued 
existence  of  His  Church,  and  all  the  magnificent 
events  the  latter  involves — I  say  it  would  be  a 
most  unreasonable  supposition  that  God,  after  all 
this,  should  have  left  man  utterly  at  sea,  with 
nothing  definite  to  believe  concerning  it  all.  And, 
furthermore,  it  were  equally  unreasonable  to  sup- 
pose that,  after  God  had  thus  acted  definitely 
through  a  long  series  of  centuries,  and  consistent- 
ly unto  some  definite  end,  there  would  not  be 
men  all  along  through  time,  who,  in  their  falli- 
bility, their  blindness,  their  ignorance,  arrogance, 
or  wilfulness,  would  fail  to  understand  it  all,  and 
would  misrepresent  it  either  in  its  parts  or  as  a 
whole.  All  men  must  be  infallible  in  order  for 
this  not  to  happen.  In  the  structure  of  affairs  we 
are  to  anticipate  that  some  men  can  be  found, 
either  in  the  past  or  present,  who  will  deny  any 
given  part  you  please  of  the  whole  Divine  move- 
ment. This  only  proves  man's  fallibility,  not 
that  there  is  no  Catholic  faith.  !Nay,  God  has  not 
cast  the  most  solemn  and  vital  interests  of  man 
upon  the  rock  of  fallible  private  judgment.  It  is 
Satan  that  hath  impaled  them  upon  the  sharp 
point  of  that  rock  and  wrecked  them.  It  were 
the  wildest  extravagance,  therefore,  were  we  not 
to  limit  the  phrase  "  Everywhere,  always,  and  by 


THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

all,"  in  some  way,  and  so  take  our  second  legiti- 
mate approximation  toward  what  we  seek,  name- 
ly— the  Catholic  faith.  It  were  absurd,  then,  to 
look  to  all  who  call  themselves  Christians,  if  we 
would  find  the  Catholic  faith.  The  Catholic 
faith,  then,  is  not  the  Christian  faith  as  it  may 
be  held  by  this,  that,  or  the  other  fallible  man ; 
but  it  is  the  faith  as  it  has  been  held  by  the  infal- 
lible Catholic  Church. 

We  are  forced,  then,  into  the  preliminary  ques- 
tion, what  is  the  Catholic  Church  ?  In  answering 
this  we  shall  be  making  our  third  and  last  approx- 
imation toward  the  Catholic  faith.  Where,  then, 
shall  I  find  the  Catholic  Church  ?  Now,  a  church 
is  an  organism.  The  Catholic  Church  must  be  an 
organism  universal  over  space  and  universal  back 
through  time  to  Christ.  Suppose,  now,  I  go  to  the 
Methodists  again.  I  find  there  an  organism ;  but 
in  looking  back  I  find  it  was  arranged  about  the 
time  of  JOHN  WESLEY,  one  hundred  years  ago. 
Before  his  day  there  was  no  such  church  organ- 
ism. I  pass  then  to  the  Presbyterians.  There  I 
find  a  different  organism.  But  in  looking  back  I 
find  it  dates  its  origin  only  about  three  hundred 
years  ago.  That  will  not  answer,  then.  Yery 
well,  I  try  the  Congregationalists,  and,  in  fact, 
each  and  all  of  the  modern  Protestant  organiza- 
tions. Avowedly,  they  do  not  any  of  them  run 
back  into  the  dreadful  mediaeval  times — those 
dark  ages.  Whatever  these  Protestant  organisms 
may  be,  then,  they  must  each  and  all  be  set  aside 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUKCH  AND  FAITH.         H5 

as,  at  any  rate,  not  Catholic  organisms  either  in 
space  or  in  time,  and  therefore  not  Catholic  at  all. 
Well,  suppose  I  come  to  our  Church.  I  find  it,  as 
an  organism,  with  its  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons, 
its  ritual  form  of  worship,  its  altars  and  sacra- 
ments, its  Conventions  and  Synods,  its  dioceses  and 
parishes,  running  back  in  the  history  of  England 
into  mediaeval  times;  yea,  still  farther  back 
through  the  early  days  of  old  Britain  and  up  even 
to  the  Apostles.  I  seem  to  strike  something 
Catholic  here.  But  be  not  in  haste.  Suppose  I 
go  to  the  Roman  Church.  I  find  that  I  can  trace 
its  life  back  also  uninterruptedly  to  the  Apostles. 
Suppose  I  go  to  the  Greek  Church.  I  find  the 
same  peculiarity  of  continued  existence  back  to 
the  Apostles  there.  Here,  then,  in  the  Roman, 
Greek,  and  Anglican  Churches,  we  have  reached 
something  which  it  will  do  at  least  to  pause  upon 
for  further  investigation. 

But  have  a  care.  When  we  look  a  little  more 
closely  into  the  Anglican  organization  as  a  whole, 
and  consider  it  part  by  part,  and  when  we  ex- 
amine the  Roman  organization  in  like  manner, 

O  7 

and  the  Greek,  we  find  that  each  of  the  three  dif- 
fers from  the  other  two  in  certain  respects.  Rome 
has  a  Pope  and  a  cultus  of  St.  Mary  the  ever-Yir- 
gin  ;  these  are  not  parts  of  the  Greek  or  of  the  An- 
glican organisms.  Though  we  have  paused  here, 
then,  though  the  Catholic  Church  must  be  here- 
abouts somewhere,  nevertheless,  when  we  have 
reached  our  Church,  we  have  not  yet  readied  the 


THE  FAILURE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

Catholic  Church  which  we  are  in  search  of;  when 
we  go  to  Rome  we  have  not  yet  reached  that 
Catholic  Church.  And  equally  when  we  go  to  the 
Greeks  we  have  not  reached  the  object  of  our 
search.  For  we  find  that  neither  of  these  three  or- 
ganisms, when  taken  as  a  whole,  and  in  all  its  mi- 
nutiae, is  accepted  by  the  other  two.  Shall  we  go 
elsewhere  then?  There  is  nowhere  else  to  go. 
Let  us  look,  then,  more  closely  still  here. 

As  we  examine,  we  find  that  although  the 
three,  Anglican,  Greek,  and  Roman,  thus  differ  in 
some  respects,  they  are  marvellously  alike  in  all 
others.  All  three  have  a  hierarchy  of  Bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons.  All  have  the  Holy  Altar 
of  the.  Tremendous  Sacrifice  as  the  central  object 
in  their  churches.  All  have  robed  clergy.  All 
have  Saints'  days  and  identical  Ecclesiastical 
Seasons.  All  .have  a  ritual  form  of  worship.  All 
have  parishes,  dioceses,  and  provinces.  All  date 
their  life  back  into  the  first  century.  All  have 
stately  ceremonials  and  processions;  the  Greeks 
the  most  glorious,  the  Romans  less,  and  the  An- 
glicans the  least.  All  acknowledge  the  authority 
of  General  Councils.  All  have  the  same  Apostolic 
Succession  and  the  same  Sacraments.  Here,  then, 
I  begin  to  find  the  Catholic  Church.  Those  few 
peculiarities  in  which  the  Greek,  the  Anglican, 
and  the  Roman  differ  from  each  other,  are  merely 
local ;  all  those  many  peculiarities  in  which  the 
three  are  at  one,  shape  out  for  me  visibly,  solidly, 
and  sharply  the  great  Catholic  Church;  one  in 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FAITH. 

space  as  in  organism,  and  one  in  time  ;  to  be  found 
equally  in  Russia,  and  Italy,  and  England,  and 
America,  and  Mexico,  and  Germany,  and  Brazil 
— everywhere ;  to  be  found,  too,  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  and  equally  in  mediaeval  time,  and  also 
in  the  earliest  days,  unchanged  and  unchangeable. 
And  every  thing  in  the  Anglican,  Greek,  and 
Roman  bodies,  which  the  three  hold  in  common, 
and  which  has  been  held  in  them  everywhere,  al- 
ways, and  by  all,  is  Catholic.  Any  thing  else, 
any  peculiarity  which  we  have  that  Rome  and  the 
Easterns  have  not,  or  which  Rome  has  but  the 
Greeks  and  we  have  not,  or  which  the  Greeks  have 
but  Rome  and  we  have  not,  is  merely  local,  par- 
tial, and  not  Catholic. 

I  repeat,  for  years  we  have  been  talking  about 
our  Church  as  the  Church ;  but  what  is  that  but 
mere  high-and  dry  Anglicanism  ?  It  is  not  Catho- 
licity. Equally  so  Rome  has  been  calling  herself 
the  Church.  Pars  pro  toto.  But  what  is  that  but 
mere  Romanism,  not  Catholicism?  Just  so  the 
Greeks  have  called  themselves  tJie  Church.  As 
well  might  New  York  or  New  Jersey  call  itself 
the  Middle  States.  There  is  a  popular  saying, 
"  Home  or  Reason."  This  is  simply  because  peo- 
ple have  identified  Rome  with  Catholicity.  But  a 
part  was  never  yet  the  whole.  Christ  never  prom- 
ised to  be  with  a  part  of  the  Catholic  Church  to 
guide  it  into  all  truth,  any  more  than  He  has  prom- 
ised to  be  with  a  single  individual ;  it  was  only 
the  whole  Church  Catholic  He  promised  thus  to  be 


THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

with.  Rome's  dicta,  therefore,  come  to  us  with, 
no  binding  authority.  When  the  Whole  Church 
speaks  then  will  we  yield,  and  then  only,  because 
then  it  will  be  Christ  Jesus  speaking.  "  Rome  or 
Reason"  is  a  snare  to  unwary  souls.  ISTo,  my 
friends;  we  deny  that  we  must  accept  either 
Rome  or  Reason.  But  substitute  in  your  alterna- 
tive the  word  "  Catholicity  "  for  the  word  "  Rome," 
and  make  it  "  Divine  Catholicity,"  or  "Human 
Reason,"  and  we  will  take  Our  stand  just  there, 
and  join  issue  with  you  to  the  end. 

Permit  me  to  close  this  part  of  my  discourse 
by  an  illustration  of  the  Catholic  Church.  We 
will  take,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  a  tree.  For 
eicrht  feet  above  the  soil  its  trunk  stands  one  and 

O 

entire.  Somewhere  along  the  ninth  foot  the  trunk 
branches  into  two  main  limbs.  We  will  call  the 
Eastern  the  Greek  limb,  and  the  Western  we  will 
call  the  Latin.  Six  feet  farther  out  on  the  Latin 
limb,  that  is  to  say,  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground, 
that  Western  limb  subdivides  into  two  vast 
branches.  The  outmost  of  the  two  we  will  call 
the  Anglican  branch,  the  other  we  will  call  the 
Roman.  These  two  branches  and  the  Greek  limb 
run  up  to  a  height  of  nineteen  and  a  half  feet  from 
the  ground.  There  they  are,  the  three  great 
boughs,  each  with  its  foliage,  Anglican  at  the 
West,  Roman  in  the  centre,  Greek  at  the  East. 
If  now  you  shield  your  vision  from  all  but  the  top 
of  the  tree,  there  will  appear  to  you  to  be  three 
disconnected  tufts  of  vegetation,  but  lo !  the  foliage 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FAITH. 

and  the  flowers  are  the  same.  But  remove  now 
the  shield  from  before  your  eyes,  and  behold  in 
the  whole  tree  a  symbol  of  the  Catholic  Church — 
one  organism  from  root  to  summit.  A  Church 
that  is  one  like  the  trunk  of  that  tree  for  the  first 
nine  centuries — that  branches  then  into  Eastern 
and  Western ;  the  Western  subdividing  at  the  fif- 
teenth century  into  Anglican  and  Roman.  As  a 
fact  the  unity  of  the  organism  is  not  broken  ;  in- 
tercommunion between  its  three  parts  is  simply 
suspended  for  a  time — suspended  until  that  differ- 
entiation shall  take  place  in  God's  One  Church, 
which,  as  Herbert  Spencer  so  admirably  shows,  is 
the  law  of  all  growth;  a  differentiation  which 
means  in  its  last  issue,  not  a  complete  sundering 
of  the  parts,  but  the  eventual  unity  of  multiplex- 
ity,  the  harmony  of  coordinate  parts.  Did  it  not 
mix  the  metaphor  somewhat,  I  would  go  on  and 
complete  the  illustration  by  supposing  sundry 
branches  of  this  tree  to  be  cut  off  from  time  to 
time,  and  inserted  into  vases  of  water  standino- 

'  '       O 

round  about  the  ore  at  tree.     Beiiiff  without  root, 

o  O  / 

those  cut  longest  ago  are  all  dead ;  while  only  the 
the  most  recently  cut  are  green  with  a  deceptive 
life,  themselves  soon  to  wither  and  die.  These 
cut  branches,  standing  trunkless  and  rootless  about 
the  living  tree,  would  be  apt  symbols  of  the 
Protestant  sects. 

We  have  found,  then,  what  the  Catholic  Church 
is.  Now,  the  Catholic  faith  is  the  faith  as  held 
by  that  Catholic  Church.  "  Faith  "  is  different 


120     THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

from  "  Doctrine."  That  wliich  any  one  of  the 
three  limbs  has  as  a  peculiarity  of  its  own,  is  not 
the  Catholic  faith.  But  all  that  which  the  three 
limbs  have  in  common  with  each  other,  and  in 
common  with  the  trunk  below  even  down  to  the 
roots,  that  is  Catholic.  What  faith  is  it,  then,  that 
they  all  hold  in  common?  Not  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles,  for  they  are  merely  Anglican ;  not  the 
Tridentine  Decrees,  for  they  are  merely  Roman ; 
not  the  decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Bethlehem,  for 
they  are  merely  Greek.  But  the  faith  as  set  forth 
by  those  great  Councils  wherein  all  three  took 
part,  wherein  the  whole  Church  spoke.  The 
faith,  namely,  known  as  the  Niceno-Constantino- 
politan  Creed,  which  all  three  to-day  accept,  and 
which  the  whole  Church  has  from  the  first  ac- 
cepted, even  before  those  councils  set  that  faith  in 
its  present  framework  of  words.  Now,  then,  we 
are  ready  to  answer  the  question,  what  is  this 
faith  ?  It  is  the  Catholic  presentment  of  Chris- 
tianity involving  a  Church  visible  as  a  vital  part 
of  Christianity.  It  is  fundamentally  different 
from  the  Protestant  presentment  of  Christianity. 
It  is  not  a  heterogeneous  list  of  articles  about  jus- 
tification, and  the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  faith,  and 
sanctification  and  election.  It  is  organic  as  a 
whole ;  that  is  to  say,  each  statement  in  it  grows 
out  of  the  preceding,  and,  in  turn,  opens  the  way 
for  the  one  following.  It  is  not  a  list  of  discon- 
nected theological  conclusions,  hard  to  understand 
as  Spinoza  or  Ralph  W.  Emerson.  It  is,  on  the 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FAITH. 

other  hand,  a  plain  record  of  historic  and  other 
fact.  It  is  simply  the  consecutive  history  of  what 
God  has  done  to  save  man,  in  order  that  every 
man  may  know  what  it  is  and  freely  take  advan- 
tage of  it.  It  is,  in  brief,  a  very  clear  description 
of  the  course  which,  in  the  Divine  purpose,  Grace 
takes  as  it  starts  from  God  the  Father,  and  reaches 
at  last  the  individual  sinner. 

Now  let  us  examine  and  analyze  it.  It  begins 
by  giving  us  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker 
of  all  that  is  visible  and  invisible.  Its  second 
step  is  to  give  us  God  the  Son,  and  the  perfect 
unity  subsisting  between  Father  and  Son  in  God. 
For  the  Son  is  "  God  of  God,  and  of  One  Sub- 
stance with  the  Father."  Its  third  step  is  the 
statement  that  the  Son  came  down  to  earth  and 
became  man,  took  our  nature  upon  Him ;  and  it 
gives  us  the  perfect  unity  of  Godhead  and  man- 
hood in  Jesus  Christ ;  "  came  down  from  heaven, 
was  incarnate,  was  made  man."  Its  fourth  step 
gives  us  the  gradual  perfecting  of  Christ's  man- 
hood by  suffering :  "  He  suffered,  was  crucified, 
was  buried."  Its  fifth  step  gives  us  the  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension  of  the  perfected  manhood,  and 
the  giving  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  His  Church.  Its 
sixth  step  gives  us  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Apos- 
tolic Church.  Its  seventh  gives  us  baptism  into 
that  Church.  Its  eighth  gives  us  the  remission  of 
sins  consequent  upon  that  baptism.  Its  ninth, 
our  resurrection.  And  its  tenth  and  last,  our  life 
everlasting. 

6 


122  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

Now,  what  is  all  this,  beloved  ?  It  is  all  a 
very  awful  matter ;  but  it  is  all  a  very  plain  and 
easily  understood  matter  nevertheless.  It  is  sim- 
ply Christianity  as  distinguished  from  Rational- 
ism. Any  thing  less  than  or  outside  of  it  is  Ration- 
alism, even  though  it  may  surround  itself  with 
pulpits,  and  build  meeting-houses,  and  have  min- 
isters, and  services  on  Sundays,  and  read  the 
Bible,  and  preach  sermons  to  its  votaries.  It  is 
simply  and  solely  the  history  of  what  God  has 
done  to  save  you.  It  is,  in  short,  the  Gospel.  It 
is  simply  and  solely  a  consecutive  record,  a  de- 
scription of  the  course — that  is  to  say,  of  the  chan- 
nel— which,  in  the  Divine  purpose,  grace  takes  as 
it  starts  from  God  the  Father,  and  at  last  reaches 
any  individual  sinner  for  his  salvation. 

For,  first  we  have  God  the  Father,  the  source 
of  all  things — the  source,  therefore,  of  that  grace. 
Then,  second,  we  have  the  Son  and  the  Father, 
one  in  God ;  so  that  the  grace  in  the  Father  flows 
out  uninterruptedly  and  fills  the  Son,  owing  to 
their  unity.  This  is  the  first  step  the  grace 
reaches  in  its  journey  toward  you  and  me. 
Then,  third,  Godhead  and  manhood  in  Jesus 
Christ  are  one ;  and  after  Christ's  manliood  is  per- 
fected through  suffering,  the  grace  in  His  God- 
head flows  out  and  fills  His  manhood  owino*  to 

o 

their  unity :  that  manhood  rising,  ascending,  and 
receiving  the  gifts  for  us.  This  is  the  second 
stage  which  the  grace  reaches  in  its  journey  from 
God  the  Father  toward  you  and  me,  viz.,  into 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FAITH.         123 

the  man's  nature,  i.  e.,  the  Soul  and  Body  Natural 
of  Christ.  Then  comes  the  Holy  Catholic  Church, 
the  Body  Mystical  of  Christ,  which  is  one  with 
His  Body  Natural.  Scripture  exhausts  all  met- 
aphor to  make  us  realize  how  entirely  one  are 
Christ  and  His  Body  Mystical,  the  Church.  At 
Pentecost,  the  grace  which  filled  His  Body  Natu- 
ral in  Heaven  now  flowed  out  and  filled  His  Body 
Mystical,  the  Church,  owing  to  their  unity  ;  it  did 
not  descend  on  individuals,  as  such,  but  on  the 
Body  of  the  Church.  This  is  the  third  stage 
which  the  grace  reaches  in  its  journey  from  God 
the  Father  toward  you  and  me.  The  Church  on 
earth,  the  One,  Holy,  visible,  organic,  perpetual, 
Apostolic  and  Catholic  Church  is  its  great  Reser- 
voir ;  not  any  one  part  of  it  alone ;  not  Rome 
alone,  but  the  whole  Church.  Who  tells  me,  then, 
that  I  must  go  to  Rome,  when,  as  an  Anglican,  I 
am  already  in  the  Catholic  Church!  Why,  I 
simply  laugh  at  his  want  of  comprehension.  The 
Catholic  Church  is  the  Reservoir  on  earth.  But 
how  is  that  grace  to  reach  and  fill  you,  poor  sin- 
ner? The  Catholic  creed  goes  on  to  tell  you: 
You,  as  an  individual,  must  become  as  one  with 
that  Church,  or  Body  Mystical  of  Christ,  as  It  is 
with  His  Body  Natural,  as  the  latter  is  with  His 
Godhead,  which  is  one  with  the  Father.  This  is 
the  last  unity  in  the  Gospel  of  salvation.  How  is 
this  last  unity  to  be  effected  ?  The  very  next  step 
in  the  creed  tells  you.  You  must  acknowledge 
the  one  baptism,  and  take  advantage  of  it  for  your- 


THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

self  and  for  your  children  with  hallelujahs,  for  the 
grace  will  now  have  reached  its  last  designed 
stage,  viz.,  the  individual,  to  work  spiritual  health 
in  him. 

This  is  the  plain  history  of  the  whole  matter. 
This  alone  gives  any  sanction  to  baptism.  This 
alone  lifts  it  from  the  status  of  a  mere  empty 
form.  The  Catholic  Faith  then  goes  on  to  tell 
you  of  the  Communion  of  all  the  Saints  together 
in  the  grace,  who  are  thus  made  one  by  baptism 
with  the  Church,  with  Christ,  with  God.  Then 
the  Creed  proceeds  as  a  consequence  to  tell  you 
of  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  And  as  death  is 
by  sin,  death  being  the  sundering  of  body  from 
soul,  the  Creed  gives  next,  what  is  consequent 
upon  the  remission  of  sin,  namely,  the  resurrection 
of  the  body ;  and  closes,  coming  to  its  climax,  by 
stating  the  object  of  all  this,  namely,  your  life 
everlasting. 

Now,  this  is  the  Catholic  faith.  This  is  the 
presentment  made  to  the  world  by  the  Catholic 
Church,  everywhere,  always,  and  by  all,  of  Chris- 
tianity as  a  mediatorial  system.  God  the  Father 
and  the  sinner  are  put  wide  apart  by  sin.  They 
are  to  be  reconciled — are  to  be  brought  to  an  at- 
one-ment.  Something  comes  in  between  to  do 
this.  That  is  what  mediation  means ;  something 
coming  in  between ;  and  that,  not  to  sunder,  but 
to  unite.  That  which  comes  in  between  the  sin- 
ner and  God  the  Father  must  be  real  and  opera- 
tive, and  not  a  mere  intellectual  conception.  It 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FAITH.          125 

must  be  something  that  literally  grasps  hold  of  us, 
not  a  mere  idea  which  we  grasp  and  contemplate. 
Now,  what  is  this  mediatorial  operation,  that,  in 
God's  purposes,  comes  in  between  and  lays  hold 
of  us  that  we  may  be  saved  ?  Why,  who  is  the 
great  Mediator?  It  is  Jesus  Christ.  But  Jesus 
Christ  must  not  be  a  mere  intellectual  idea  which 
we  can  be  thankful  for.  As  a  Mediator  He  must 
be  operative.  And  how  does  Christ  operate  as  a 
Mediator  ?  Why,  through  His  Body  Mystical  and 
its  extensions  (its  arms,  so  to  speak),  which  are  one 
with  Himself,  just  as  I  operate  through  my  body 
natural  which  is  one  with  me.  At  the  very  first, 
in  Palestine,  Christ  came  and  operated  in  His 
body  Natural ;  He  walked  and  spoke  in  it ;  but 
ever  since  then,  and  out  over  the  earth,  and  down 
through  the  centuries,  He  walketh  and  speaketh 
and  doth  operate  through  His  Body  Mystical. 
The  extensions  of  that  Body  Mystical  are  the 
Ministry  and  the  Sacraments.  All  this  (that  is  to 
say,  Christ  Jesus,  not  as  a  mere  intellectual  idea, 
but  Christ  and  all  of  Him)  is  the  Mediator; 
which  speaks  to  the  sinner  to-day  and  every  day, 
"  I  pray  you  be  reconciled  to  God ; "  and  which 
then  lays  hold  of  the  willing  but  helpless  sinner 
by  Baptism,  and  makes  him  one  with  the  Divine 
Life,  setting  him  in  It  like  a  graft  into  a  tree,  and 
then  feeds  him  with  the  Divine  Life  through  the 
Blessed  Eucharist.  All  this,  I  say,  is  what  the 
Catholic  Faith  declares  to  be  "Christianity,  the 
Doctrine  of  Mediation."  Now,  all  other  systems, 


126  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

which  deprive  Christ  of  His  Body  Mystical,  which 
preach  a  half-Christ  and  not  the  whole  Christ, 
which  preach  a  broken,  bruised,  mutilated  Christ, 
which  cut  off  from  Him  the  Apostolic  Ministry 
and  Sacraments,  that  are  the  very  arms  by  which 
through  the  centuries  and  all  over  the  earth  He 
mercifully  lays  hold  of  and  folds  sinners  into  at- 
one-ment  with  Himself  and  the  Father,  and  feeds 
them  with  His  Life,  all  other,  that  is  to  say,  all 
Protestant  schemes,  are  but  schemes  of  incipient 
Rationalism,  which  have  so  wounded  the  Gospel 
truth  and  fact  of  Mediation,  that  it  soon  dies  of 
the  wounds  it  has  received  even  in  the  house  of 
its  Protestant  friends.  All  the  nursing,  all  the 
anxiety,  all  the  watchings  of  Protestant,  Calvinist 
and  Armenian,  will  not  save  the  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tian Mediation,  after  it  is  thus  mutilated,  from 
sinking  into  the  death  of  Unitarianism.  The 
Catholic  Gospel  of  salvation  is  simple.  Be  bap- 
tized into  the  Church,  for  that  Church  Catholic  is 
one  with  Christ,  and  Christ  is  one  with  the  Father. 
Of  course,  I  need  not  qualify  this  statement  by 
saying,  that  it  supposes  the  baptized  man  will 
faithfully  use  the  Means  of  Grace  made  over  to 
him  by  God  through  the  Church.  The  whole  is 
summed  up  in  this,  viz. :  "  The  union  of  God  and 
man,  begun  in  the  person  of  Christ,  is  continued 
and  extended  in  the  Church,  which  is  the  Body 
of  Christ ;  the  Church  acting  through  its  Ministry 
and  Sacraments." 

I  have  but  time  to  contrast   in  a  word  the 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  FAITH.         127 

Protestant  Gospel  of  salvation  with  all  this.  The 
Protestant  is  told  to  stand  outside  of  this  really 
operative  work  of  Mediation,  and  to  agonize  as  an 
individual  until  an  "  ictus  falls  from  behind  the 
stars,"  until  grace  comes  in  the  fashion  of  an  in- 
visible streak  of  lightning  out  of  the  far  Heaven, 
and  pierces  his  individual  breast.  But  is  this 
Mediation  f  Is  this  Christianity  f  What  is  it, 
after  all,  but  the  sheerest  Immediation  between 
the  individual  and  God?  And,  brethren,  no  sub- 
jective intellectual  notion  which  the  individual 
may,  at  the  same  time,  hold  in  his  brain  about 
Christ  as  some  historic  and  distant  being,  who  did 
something  to  make  Himself  somehow  a  Mediator, 
will  save  it  from  its  Immediation.  "When  you  set 
a  hard  practical  fact  against  a  mere  intellectual 
idea,  the  fact  is  always  too  much  for  the  idea,  and 
eventually  drives  it  off,  and  holds  the  whole  field 
to  itself.  And  this  is  one  reason  why  Protestantism 
invariably  gravitates  down  into  Unitarianism  and 
avowed  Rationalism.  Now,  these  people  have  the 
supposed  fact  of  a  practical  system  of  Immedia- 
tion between  God  and  the  individual  working  all 
the  time ;  what  wonder  if  their  mere  notion  of 
mediation  vanishes  at  last  before  the  stern  reality, 
and  they  all  sink,  victims  of  Satan,  into  a  denial 
at  last  of  every  thing  distinctively  Christian? 
What  is  Protestantism,  then,  but  Rationalism — 
the  system  of  Immediation,  concealed  in  a  Chris- 
tian cloak.  It  is  my  part,  as  your  pastor,  watch- 


128  TIIE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

ing  for  your  souls,  to  strip  off  that  cloak  and  show 
the  demon  within. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Catholic  Faith  as  being 
the  Faith  as  held  by  the  Catholic  Church.  I  have 
described  to  you  what  that  Faith  is.  It  is  per- 
haps not  from  the  purpose  of  my  subject  to  re- 
mind you  that,  besides  the  Faith  as  set  down  in 
the  Creed,  there  is  much  else  that  is  common  to 
the  Catholic  Church.  Her  universal  yearning  for 
the  faithful  dead  ;  Her  universal  prayers  for  their 
joyful  resurrection — that  they  "may  have  their 
perfect  consummation  and  bliss,  both  in  body  and 
soul,  in  God's  eternal  and  everlasting  glory;" 
"  Remember  not,  Lord,  our  offences,  nor  the  of- 
fences of  our  forefathers  ;  "  "  Most  humbly  be- 
seeching Thee  to  grant  that,  by  the  merits  and 
death  of  Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  through  faith 
in  His  Blood,  we  and  all  Thy  whole  Church  may 
obtain  remission  of  our  sins,  and  all  other  benefits 
of  His  Passion ; "  Her  universal  love  for  the 
Saints  ;  Her  universal  realization  of  the  presence 
of  Angels,  not  only  round  about  Her  altars  at  the 
Eucharist,  but  round  about  us  as  guardians,  to 
"  be  our  succor  and  defence  on  earth  ;  "  Her  uni- 
versal tenderness  for  the  confessing  penitent ;  Her 
universal  declarations  of  absolution — "Receive 
ye  the  Holy  Ghost,"  the  Anglican  Church  says  to 
each  of  Her  priests  at  ordination,  "  whose  sins 
thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven ;  and  whose 
sins  thou  dost  retain,  they  are  retained ; " — the 
separateness  that  marks  and  the  glory  that  sur- 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUECH  AND  FAITH.         129 

rounds  universally  Her  altars.  People  sometimes 
say,  when  they  enter  one  of  our  churches,  "  Why, 
it  looks  like  a  Roman  Catholic  church  I  "  As  a 
matter  of  course,  beloved ;  why  should  it  not  ? 
It  is  not  intended  that  two  brothers  should  not 
look  at  least  like  each  other.  It  were  very  strange 
if  they  did  not.  Still,  brethren,  do  not  identify  a 
gorgeous  ritual,  befitting  the  presence  of  our  tre- 
mendous Sacrifice  Christ  Jesus,  with  a  Roman 
ritual.  The  Anglican  is  not  the  Roman  Church, 
though  both  are  Catholic.  Two  brothers,  though 
they  may  be  alike,  are  by  no  means  the  swine. 
There  are  points  in  Rome  which  She  has  added 
to  the  Catholic  system,  but  which  we,  as  Angli- 
cans, and  which  equally  the  Greeks,  are  uncom- 
promisingly opposed  to,  which  belong  not  to  this 
age,  and  which  must  be  abolished  before  inter- 
communion can  take  place.  But,  nevertheless,  a 
gorgeous  ritual  is  in  itself  Catholic,  and,  so  long 
as  it  symbolizes  the  Catholic  verities,  and  no  Ro- 
man errors,  is  surely  in  harmony  with  our  Church 
as  a  visible  and  symbolic  Body.  "While  we  do 
not  propose  to  be  Roman,  we  do  not  hesitate,  not 
only  to  be,  but  even  to  seem  to  be,*  Catholic. 
Like  Lazarus,  our  Church  has  been  bound  in  the 
grave-clothes  of  Protestantism  and  prejudice  ;  but 
the  Lord,  Her  loving  Master,  hath  come,  and,  as 
Her  Marys  and  Her  Marthas  stand  weeping,  He 
calls  Her  forth,  and  utters  the  glad  mandate, 
"  Loose  Her,  and  let  Her  go !  " 

Before  I  close,  perhaps  I  may  be  pardoned  if 
6* 


130  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

I  "say  a  word  or  two  touching  the  able  leading 
article  in  the  Daily  World,  the  ingenious  com- 
munication in  the  same  journal  signed  "  Roman 
Catholic,"  and  the  leading  article  in  the  Christian 
Observer.  Long-settled  prejudices  and  cherished 
feelings  are  never  touched  by  hostile  hand  with- 
out danger  of  exciting  passion  and  vituperation. 
And  I  desire  to  express  in  some  public  way  my 
obligations  for  the  calm  and  manly  spirit  shown 
by  each  of  the  three  writers.  Of  course,  it  is  not 
my  purpose,  during  the  delivery  of  these  sermons, 
to  answer  editorial  articles  and  anonymous  news- 
paper correspondence.  There  would  be  no  end  to 
the  discussion.  Still,  with  your  permission,  I  will 
reserve  to  myself  the  privilege  of  lingering  a 
moment  for  a  brief  remark  on  each  of  the  articles 
mentioned  above. 

The  World  admits  the  first  main  charge  in  the 
first  sermon,  namely,  that  Protestantism  has  failed 
to  reach  the  masses.  It  declines,  perhaps  very 
properly,  to  take  the  responsibility  of  deciding 
one  way  or  the  other  as  to  whether  Protestantism 
leads  logically  to  infidelity,  which  was  our  second 
main  charge.  It  says,  however,  that,  if  Protes- 
tantism "  be  not  in  the  condition  of  the  Church 
of  Sardis  and  the  Church  of  the  Laodiceans,"  as 
those  Churches  are  depicted  in  the  third  chapter 
of  Eevelation,  "  it  is  time  they  proved  it ; "  and 
that  "  silence  and  inaction  are  no  longer  safe  for 
them."  The  only  remedy  which  the  World  sug- 
gests for  the  evils  charged  is,  for  each  large  parish 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUECH  AND  FAITH. 

to  sell  its  church  and  land,  and,  with  the  proceeds, 
build  several  inexpensive  churches,  one  of  which 
shall  be  for  its  own  use,  and  the  others  to  be  free 
to  all  comers.  I  have  only  to  remark  on  this, 
that  it  is  an  admirable  and  Catholic  suggestion, 
full  of  common  sense ;  but  that,  nevertheless,  I 
fail  to  see  how  it  would  touch  the  real  difficulty. 
For,  after  all,  it  would  be  the  self-same  old  Prot- 
estantism that  would  be  preached  in  those  free 
churches,  which,  as  a  concealed  Rationalism,  has 
been  abandoned  for  the  genuine  article  by  the  In- 
tellect of  the  Age,  and  which  has  disgusted  the 
masses  for  many  reasons  besides  its  abominable 
system  of  "  hired  pews." 

The  writer  signing  himself  "Roman  Cath- 
olic "  also  admits  the  gravity  of  the  charges.  But 
he  claims  that  the  Rationalism  of  the  day  is  not 
the  logical  result  of  Protestantism^/1  se,  but  only 
of  its  Lutheranism  and  its  Calvinism;  and  the 
cure  he  suggests  is,  for  Protestantism  to  discharge 
Lutheranism  and  Calvinism  out  of  itself.  This  is 
just  precisely  what  I  claim  the  Intellect  of  the 
Age  has  been  doing ;  and  lo,  the  phenomenon — 
with  Lutheranism  and  Calvinism  emptied  out, 
you  have  no  Protestantism  left !  Thus,  it  seems 
to  me,  the  cure  kindly  suggested  by  "  Roman 
Catholic  "  is,  to  kill  the  patient.  Terrible  satirist, 
he  sees  the  point ! 

The  editor  of  the  Christian  Observer  first  de- 
nies the  charge  that  German,  English,  Swiss,  and 
New-England  Rationalism  is  the  outgrowth  of 


132  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

Protestantism.  He  then  attempts  to  prove  this 
denial  by  asserting  that  Romanism  also  has  made 
infidels  in  Italy  and  France.  I  do  not  deny  the 
latter  fact ;  indeed,  I  have  expressly  stated  it. 
But  I  fail  to  see  how  Romanism  leading  to  in- 
fidelity proves  that  Protestantism  does  not.  Sup- 
pose that  I  should  assert  that  sugar-coated  strych- 
nine kills,  and  you  attempt  to  prove  that  it  will 
not  by  asserting  that  something  else  will — why, 
I  should  simply  have  nothing  to  say  in  reply. 
As  for  the  balance  of  this  paragraph  of  the  article 
under  notice,  I  am  not  disposed  to  take  an  undue 
advantage  :  it  was  evidently  written  in  haste.  I 
simply  leave  the  writer  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
his  sarcastic  friend,  "  Roman  Catholic."  If  "  Ro- 
man Catholic"  can  prove  that  the  Observer  is 
wrong,  then  so  much  the  worse  for  the  Observer  ; 
if  not,  then  so  much  the  better  for  me  and  the 
Anglican  Catholic  Church.  The  editor  of  the 
Observer  then  goes  on  to  deny  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  reaches  the  masses.  I  might 
leave  him  to  settle  this  point  with  the  Daily 
World.  But  I  will  at  least  say  that  he  has,  per- 
haps, forgotten  that  when  the  mob  raged  through 
our  streets,  defying  all  the  power  of  police"  and 
soldiery,  the  lifted  finger  of  the  Archbishop 
calmed  and  dispersed  it  in  an  hour.  He  has,  per- 
haps, forgotten  that  every  one  of  the  six,  eight,  or 
ten  Masses  said  at  every  Roman  Catholic  Church 
of  a  Sunday  morning  is  thronged  with  worship- 
pers, and  every  mass  with  a  different  congrega- 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUKCH  AND  FAITH.         133 

tion.  "  But,"  the  editor  goes  on  to  say,  "  how 
much  better  are  the  crowds  for  it  ? "  That's  not 
for  me  to  say.  If  his  insinuation  be  correct,  then 
that  is  a  difficulty  between  "  Roman  Catholic  " 
and  him.  I've  got  nothing  to  do  with  it.  My 
point  is,  that,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil,  Rome 
gets  at  the  masses,  and  Protestantism  does  not, 
and  cannot,  either  in  Romish  or  in  Protestant 
lands.  And  precisely  for  this  reason,  namely, 
that  Rome  presents  to  the  masses  the  real  Christ, 
and  so  goes  to  them  with  authority,  while  Protes- 
tantism presents  them  with  a  mere  intellectual 
notion  about  Christ ;  and  the  "  authority,"  instead 
of  being  on  the  side  of  Protestantism  as  she  ap- 
proaches the  masses,  is  avowedly  on  the  side  of 
the  private  judgment  of  the  masses,  which  may 
reject  that  intellectual  notion  or  not.  "  How 
much  better  are  the  masses  for  all  Rome  ?  "  cries 
the  Observer.  It  never  suggested  itself  to  the 
Observer  to  ask,  how  much  worse  the  masses 
might  be  but  for  Rome.  The  editor  then  pro- 
ceeds to  show  how  Protestantism  gets  at  the 
masses.  "  Look  at  all  your  organized  benevo- 
lence," cries  he ;  "  the  organized  benevolence  of 
New  York  is  a  fruit  of  Protestantism."  The 
coolness  of  this  statement  is  somewhat  admirable. 
"  Private  Judgment,"  and  "  Every  man  his  own 
Priest, "  and  "  Divine  Foreknowledge, "  and 
"  Final  Perseverance,"  and  "  Infant  Damnation," 
the  cause  of  all  the  organized  benevolence  of  JSTew 
York  !  Perhaps  there  are  no  human  hearts  un- 


134:  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

derneath  doubting  heads  in  the  city  of  New  York ; 
perhaps  there  are  no  natural  tender  sympathies ; 
perhaps  there  are  not  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
merchants  who  never  enter  a  church  from  one 
month's  end  to  another,  but  who  yet  put  their 
hands  in  their  pockets  constantly,  and  pour  out 
thousands  at  the  call  of  want.  Perhaps,  for- 
sooth, Protestantism  is  responsible  too  for  all  the 
deeds  of  charity  that  were  done  in  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome.  And  then  again,  perhaps, 
there  are  no  vast  hospitals,  and  asylums,  and 
homes  in  this  city  belonging  to  the  Roman 
Church.  "The  organized  benevolence  of  New 
York  is  how  Protestantism  goes  down  to  the 
masses,"  cries  the  Observer.  Even  should  I  admit 
that  Protestantism,  per  se,  is  the  mother  of  any 
organized  benevolence,  there  is  still  the  heavy 
charge  behind,  that,  while  it  is  mending  legs,  it 
is  losing  souls.  The  Observer  comprehends  my 
position,  and  I  respect  the  ability  it  has  displayed 
in  fighting  for  a  losing  cause ;  but  I  do  not  know 
that  I  have  any  thing  in  particular  to  say  con- 
cerning the  Baltimore  Episcopal  Methodist,  or 
the  Protestant  Churchman,  the  New- York  Meth- 
odist, or  the  Philadelphia  Roman  Catholic  Uni- 
verse, and  so  I  pass  on.  I  trust  you  will  not  fall 
into  the  popular  error  of  thinking  that  electricity 
or  the  sewing-machine  is  Protestantism. 

What  the  world  needs,  I  repeat,  is  neither  the 
sugar-coated  strychnine  of  Protestantism,  nor  the 
strychnine-coated  sugar  of  Romanism,  but  Cath- 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHUECH  AND  FAITH.         135 

olicity,  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  Catholic  sys- 
tem, and  the  Catholic  spirit. 

All  this  opposition  to  a  return  to  this  Catholic 
faith  and  spirit  and  customs,  all  this  struggle,  for 
instance,  against  one  of  the  mere  symptoms  of 
returning  health,  namely,  the  clothing  of  worship 
with  its  fitting  splendor,  is  but  the  old  story  of  Mrs. 
Partington  and  her  broom.  Some  persons  are  anx- 
ious that  canons  be  passed  to  stop  ritual.  If  such 
canons  be  passed,  of  course  they  will  be  obeyed. 
But  it  is  quite  immaterial  whether  they  are  passed 
or  not.  If  not,  then  the  stream  with  its  ever- 
gathering  waters  will  flow.  If  passed,  then  such 
canons  will  only  be  a  dam  in  the  .way,  and 
there  will  be  a  gathering  of  the  floods  behind  it, 
which,  in  God's  good  time,  will  sweep  off  and 
utterly  away  both  the  dam  and  they  that  guard 
it.  So  futile  is  it  to  attempt  to  stem  the  pur- 
poses of  Almighty  God. 


VII. 

REPLY  TO    STRICTURES    IN    THE   RELIG- 
IOUS PRESS  AND  FROM  THE  PULPIT. 

"  And  many  false  prophets  shall  rise,  and  shall  deceive 
many." — MATT.  xxiv.  11. 

THE  articles  and  sermons  purporting  to  be  re- 
plies, either  direct  or  indirect,  to  the  charges  made 
from  this  place  against  Protestantism,  are  so  ex- 
traordinary as  to  demand  at  least  brief  notice. 
Six  weeks  have  now  passed,  but,  although  there 
has  been  a  very  manifest  uneasiness  among  the 
Puritans,  and  a  good  deal  written  and  said,  it  is 
almost  needless  to  remark,  not  a  solitary  charge 
has  been  met,  nor  a  solitary  argument  answered. 
The  first  canon  which  reviewers  should  observe  is, 
to  understand  that  which  they  are  attempting  to 
criticise. 

Three  distinct  charges  have  been  made,  viz. : 
As  a  religious  system,  Protestantism  fails  to  get 
at  the  masses ;  nay,  there  were  vast  regions  of 
country  where  its  fundamental  principles  (to  wit, 
private  judgment,  and  the  dogma  of  a  church  in- 
visible only)  took  deep  and  general  root ;  but  in 


EEPLY  TO  PEOTESTANT  STKICTUKES. 

those  countries  it  has  absolutely  lost  its  hold  on 
the  masses  it  once  swayed ;  therefore  it  is  a  fail- 
ure. Secondly — The  logical  issue  of  Protestant- 
ism is  Rationalism,  i.  e.,  Protestantism  logically 
destroys  Christianity ;  therefore  it  is  a  failure, 
and,  worse,  it  is  a  delusion,  a  snare  to  souls,  a 
heresy.  Thirdly — In  the  lands  where  it  has  pre- 
vailed, as  in  Germany,  parts  of  Switzerland,  New 
England,  and  elsewhere,  the  historical  event  has 
substantiated  the  logical  anticipation ;  for  those 
lands  are  to-day  honeycombed  with  infidelity ; 
therefore  Protestantism  is  a  failure,  and  people 
should  wake  up  to  the  fact,  abandon  it,  and  look 
for  something  better.  To  these  charges  I  have 
added  the  subordinate  statement  that  Home  also 
has  failed  in  some  respects ;  but  I  assert  that  Her 
failures  are  .not  on  account  of  Her  Catholicity, 
since  they  can  be  traced  directly  to  those  very 
points  where  She  has  perverted  the  ancient  Catho- 
licity, or  overlaid  it  with  foreign  and  incongruous 
peculiarities.  Catholicity  is  divine;  and  expe- 
rience shows  us  that  it  suits  all  centuries,  that  it 
is  adapted  to  and  can  co-exist  harmoniously  with 
every  form  of  political  government,  from  the  ab- 
solute monarchy  to  the  republic,  and  with  every 
degree  of  enlightenment,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest.  Romanism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  human 
in  its  origin ;  it  sprang  in  some  of  its  features  out 
of  the  necessities  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  their 
feudalism,  and  is  not  in  harmony  with  modern 
conditions  and  our  advancing  intelligence. 


138     THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

Now,  these  three  charges  against  Protestant- 
ism have  not  been  met ;  and,  if  I  am  to  judge  by 
letters  from  perfect  strangers,  of  which  I  am  daily 
in  receipt,  the  public  are  beginning  to  see  that 
they  have  not  been  met,  and  to  inquire  what  the 
matter  is.  Protestants  cannot  turn  this  impor- 
tant subject  aside  with  a  mere  wave  of  the  hand, 
and  a  vain  attempt  to  prove  that  electricity  is 
Protestantism.  The  subject  is  one  of  too  deep 
moment  for  this.  It  is  squarely  up  before  the 
public,  and  unprejudiced  people  are  thinking 
about  it.  Silence  is  dangerous ;  and  these  pre- 
tended replies,  whether  direct  or  indirect,  that  do 
not  touch  the  real  matter  at  issue,  are  fatal. 
They  only  exhibit  the  weakness  of  the  cause. 

Here,  then,  are  the  three  distinct^  charges. 
How  do  these  answerers  and  defenders  of  Protes- 
tantism meet  the  solemn  issue?  Why,  all  of 
them  in  one  way.  First,  by  showing  that  Rome 
has  failed.  Of  course  She  has  failed.  But  what 
has  that  to  do  with  the  charges  ?  That  is  a  diffi- 
culty between  Rome  and  them ;  not  between  us 
and  them.  We  have  stated  that  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  is  a  failure  in  so  far  as  She  is  Roman, 
and  there  we  leave  Her.  "We  set  up  Catholicity 
for  the  cure,  not  Rome.  But  the  difficulty  with 
these  men  is,  that  they  do  not  seem  to  compre- 
hend that  there  is  any  other  kind  of  Christianity 
except  Protestantism  and  Romanism;  and  they 
think  that,  if  we  say  Protestantism  fails,  we 
mean,  of  course,  that  everybody  should  take  to 


EEPLY  TO  PEOTESTANT  STKICTUKES.         139 

Borne.  They  do  not  comprehend  that  there  is  a 
third  presentment  of  Christianity,  viz.,  Catholi- 
city, with  nothing  distinctively  Roman  in  it,  and 
nothing  .distinctively  "Protestant"  either.  The 
fact  is,  that,  what  with  Rome  and  what  with 
Protestantism,  Grod's  old  Catholicity  has  been  un- 
der a  cloud,  and  has  not  gained  the  general  ear 
of  the  people  in  America.  But  they  are  begin- 
ning at  last  to  arouse  to  it,  and  to  understand  it, 
if  their  leaders  do  not.  This  agitation  is  start- 
ing inquiry  among  new  thousands,  and  the  day 
is  not  distant  when  many  more  even  than  now 
will  say  to  these  answerers,  "  Your  tirades  against 
Romanism  will  not  do ;  you  do  not  meet  the 
point ;  you  must  give  us  something  different  from 
that,  if  you  expect  to  command  our  respect,  to  say 
nothing  of  our  convictions."  I  will  tell  you, 
brethren,  what  the  matter  is :  The  difficulty  is, 
the  solemn  charges  cannot  be  met ;  they  are  too 
patent  for  denial,  hence  all  this  anger  and  floun- 
dering. 

Then,  secondly,  attempt  is  made  to  identify 
Protestantism  with  the  Nineteenth  Century,  and 
to  palm  that  identification  off  as  an  answer. 
"  Look  at  all  the  light  of  to-day,"  say  they  ;  "  the 
commerce,  the  arts,  the  arms,  the  battle  of  Sado- 
wa,  the  Spanish  Revolution  !  Why,  here  is  a  man 
that  calls  all  that  a  failure !  "  But,  brethren,  it 
will  not  do.  Nobody  has  charged  that  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  is  a  failure.  Protestantism  is  not 
the  Nineteenth  Century.  No  one  has  charged 


140  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

that  the  needle-gun  is  a  failure,  or  the  sewing- 
machine,  or  the  steamboat.  The  charge  is  not 
that  the  Nineteenth  Century  is  a  failure,  but  that 
something  that  exists  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 
has  failed.  ~No  one  has  charged  that  freedom  is  a 
failure.  On  the  contrary,  the  distinct  assertion 
is  made  that  true  Catholicity,  in  the  days  of 
Henry  YIIL,  rose  against  Rome  in  the  interest 
of  freedom,  struck  down  Her  Papal  tyranny  over 
political  government,  and  Her  tyranny  over  the 
intellect.  And,  by  the  way,  the  Anglican  Church 
is  to-day  declaring  its  independence  also  of  Prot- 
estant tyranny ;  and  in  England  the  tyrant  Prot- 
estantism is  mobbing  Her  for  it.  The  liberty  of 
Puritanism  is  to-day  just  what  it  was  in  Roger 
Williams's  time,  viz.,  perfect  liberty  for  every  one 
to  believe  just  as  the  Puritan  believes,  or  take  the 
consequences.  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  we  have 
liberty  in  spite  of,  and  not  because  of,  Protestant- 
ism. A  man  is  at  liberty  to  break  down  Chris- 
tianity so  long  as  he  does  so  on  the  Protestant 
principle  of  private  judgment,  but  a  man  is  not 
at  liberty  to  defend  Christianity  on  Catholic  prin- 
ciples. If  he  dares  to,  it  is  in  the  midst  of  angry 
scowls,  social  excision,  and  Protestant  mobs. 

But,  to  return — the  distinction  is,  that  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century  true  Catholicity  struck  for  a 
true  and  guarded  freedom  in  religion,  while  Prot- 
estantism struck  for  a  ruinous  license  in  religion. 
The  charge  is,  that  that  license  is  a  failure ;  that 
it  hath  wrecked  the  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Min- 


KEPLY  TO  PEOTESTANT  STEICTUEES. 

istry,  the  Sacraments,  and  the  Apostolic  Faith. 
Within  the  wide,  unalterable  walls  of  that  Faith 
there  is  a  vast,  almost  a  fearful,  freedom  touching 
doctrine  allowed  by  God's  Catholicity.  Freedom 
in  government,  in  thought,  in  action,  is  as  dear  to 
Catholicity  as  it  is  to  any  one.  But  the  charge 
is,  that  that  rampant  license  of  Scripture  inter- 
pretation, whereby  the  most  ignorant  are  egged 
on  to  rush  in  where  angels  dare  not  tread,  is  an 
awful  mistake,  and  has  ended  in  the  ruin  of  thou- 
sands of  souls.  This  identification  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  with  Protestantism,  which  came 
out  of  the  less-enlightened  Sixteenth,  and  which 
is  one  of  the  mere  accompaniments  of  modern 
times,  will  not  do  ;  and  the  public  are  seeing  it, 
and  saying  it.  Why,  do  these  men  really  mean 
to  assert  that  not  only  modern  times,  but  every 
thing  in  modern  times,  is  a  success  ?  that  there 
have  been  no  mistakes  made  in  religion,  in  philos- 
ophy, in  any  thing  ?  that  modern  times,  forsooth, 
are  immaculate  ?  that  our  fathers  and  we  are  in- 
fallible ?  that  Protestantism,  because  it  belongs  to 
modern  times,  is  a  success  ?  Their  fallacy  proves 
too  much ;  for  then  is  the  Comtean  School  of 
Positivism  a  success  ;  then  is  Emersonian  Panthe- 
ism a  success ;  then  is  Spiritualism,  and  Parker- 
ism,  and  Fourierism,  and  Mormonism,  and  Agra- 
rianism,  a  success. 

But,  thirdly,  these  answerers,  still  avoiding 
the  charges,  attempt  to  cloud  the  matter  by  lead- 
ing the  public  to  suppose  that  Protestantism  is 


142  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

the  cause  of  all  the  glories  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century.  What !  the  religious  dogma  that  says, 
"  Away  with  God's  Apostolic  Visible  Church, 
and  let  every  man  be  his  own  Church,  his  own 
priest,  his  own  interpreter  of  the  Bible,  and  his 
own  judge  as  to  what  the  Bible  is,  or  whether 
there  is  any  Bible  at  all,"  that  fatal  religious  dog- 
ma the  cause,  forsooth,  of  all  this  science  and 
modern  light  ?  My  brethren,  it  will  not  do  ;  and 
people  are  seeing  that,  too,  and  saying  it.  But, 
if  Protestantism  be  not  the  cause,  do  you  ask  me, 
what  is  ?  The  real  cause  of  the  light  and  advance 
of  modern  times  is  not  a  theological  dogma.  But 
it  is  a  general  awakening  of  mind,  which  began 
far  back  in  the  middle  ages,  four  hundred  years 
before  the  Protestant  dogma  was  ever  thought  of 
— an  awakening  of  mind,  of  taste,  of  the  genius 
of  invention,  which,  abandoning  the  rude  struc- 
tures of  the  Seventh,  Eighth,  Ninth,  and  Tenth 
Centuries,  brought  out,  long  before  the  Conti- 
nental Reformation,  the  most  ornate  specimens  of 
architecture  the  world  ever  saw;  which,  in  the 
Eleventh  Century,  invented  paper,  and,  before 
John  Calvin  and  Martin  Luther  ever  saw  the 
light,  produced  the  art  of  printing — paper  and 
printing,  the  two  conservers  of  human  intelli- 
gence;  which,  in  the  Twelfth  Century,  devised 
banks  of  exchange  and  discount,  and  not  long 
after  invented  gunpowder,  conceived  the  idea  of 
the  post-office,  and  discovered  and  applied  the 
principle  of  magnetism  in  the  mariner's  compass 


EEPLY  TO  PKOTESTANT  STEICTUEES.         143 

thus  giving  such  a  start  to  commerce  and  mag 
nificent  geographical  discovery  as  they  had  never 
had  before;  which,  in  the  Tenth  Century,  con- 
trived clocks;  which  invented  painting  in  oil- 
colors  before  Luther  was  born ;  which,  in  the 
Thirteenth  Century,  introduced  astronomy  and 
geometry  into  Europe,  and  not  long  after  brought 
in  algebra,  and  fostered  all  three  sciences ;  which 
discovered  America  a  quarter  of  a  century  before 
the  Continental "  Reformation,"  so  called,  opened ; 
which,  centuries  before  Luther,  produced  a  Dante, 
and  a  Petrarch,  and  a  Chaucer,  and  a  Boccaccio, 
and  a  Roger  Bacon — Roger  Bacon,  who,  three 
centuries  before  his  successor,  Lord  Francis  Ba- 
con, announced  to  the  world  the  very  method  of 
legitimate  investigation  in  accordance  with  which 
all  modern  science  is  pursued,  and  upon  which 
Lord  Bacon  afterward  built  his  fame — Roger  Ba- 
con of  the  so-called  dark  ages,  who  had  this  im- 
mense advantage  over  the  Bacon  of  the  Sixteenth 
Century,  in  that  he  personally  put  his  method 
into  practice. 

But  I  will  pause.  The  cause  of  the  light  and 
advance  of  modern  times  was  a  general  awaken- 
ing of  mind  in  Western  Europe,  which  began  clear 
back  in  the  Tenth  Century ;  which  brought  out  all 
this  that  I  have  mentioned  and  more ;  which  has 
been  bringing  out  new  blessings  to  man  ever  since ; 
which  has  rolled  out  and  up  a  thousand  things — 
most  of  them  good,  some  of  them  bad ;  which 
rolled  up,  .after  a  while,  the  Protestant  dogma  for 


14A  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

one  of  its  many  and  varied  productions ;  and  which 
is  rolling  up  to-day  the  solemn  presentment  of 
that  dogma  and  of  its  fruits  at  the  bar  of  this  en- 
lightened century,  that  they  may  be  put  on  their 
trial. 

And  now  these  answerers  are  trying  to  make 
people  think  that  this  Protestantism  is  not  one  of 
the  heterogeneous  mixture  of  things  that  awaken- 
ing mind,  in  its  power  but  also  in  its  fallibility, 
turned  up  (and  that,  four  hundred  years  after 
awakening  mind  had  begun  to  produce  its  marvel- 
lous fruits),  but  that  it  is,  forsooth,  the  underlying 
cause  of  all  the  good  of  modern  times — gunpowder, 
glass,  paper,  printing,  painting,  telescopes,  astron- 
omy, algebra,  Magna  Charta,  and  every  thing  else ; 
— a  mother  producing  children  before  she  was 
born  !  Protestantism  was  but  one  of  the  eifects 
of  the  general  awakening  of  mind,  not  its  cause ; 
and  our  charge  is,  that  it  happened  to  be  one  of 
the  bad  effects — not  in  that  it  struck  at  Roman 
error,  but  because  it  sought  to  destroy  Catholic 
truth  also.  Why,  brethren,  awakening  mind 
must  have  been  infallible  not  to  have  made  at 
least  some  few  mistakes.  Let  these  gentlemen 
meet  the  charge,  and  not  try  to  escape  by  raising 
a  cloud  of  issues,  which  are  so  clearly  false  and 
foreign  to  the  subject,  that  they  are  beginning  to 
be  remarked  as  such. 

"Where  Protestantism  prevails,  there  every 
thing  prevails  which  blesses  mankind,"  it  is  said. 
Nay,  it  should  have  been  said,  that  where  awak- 


EEPLY  TO  PEOTESTANT  STEICTURES.         14.5 

ened  mind  prevails,  tliere  thousands  of  tilings 
prevail  which  bless  mankind,  and  some  things 
which  are  not  blessings.  "Where  Protestantism 
prevails,  indeed!  "Why,  you  might  as  well  say 
where  Spiritualism  prevails,  or  Unitarianism,  there 
every  thing  prevails  which  blesses  mankind,  and 
think  that  you  have  proved  thereby  that  Spiritual- 
ism is  a  success ;  you  might  as  well  say  where  in- 
fidelity prevails,  every  thing  prevails  that  blesses 
mankind,  and  think  you  have  proved  that  infideli- 
ty is  a  success.  For  infidelity  prevails  throughout 
lands  that  once  were  Protestant,  and  in  those  lands 
the  skeptics  very  much  outnumber  the  believers. 

And  now  for  a  very  subordinate  point  in  the 
connection.  It  is  charged  that  Rome  has  opposed 
the  advance  of  science ;  that  Copernicus  was  ex- 
communicated, and  Galileo  imprisoned.  That  is 
all  true,  and  so  much  the  worse  for  Rome,  say  we. 
That  is  something  she  must  settle.  But  the  infer- 
ence intended  to  be  drawn  is,  that  Protestant 
religionists  have  been  great  friends  of  science.  I 
do  not  say  that  true  Catholics  have  been  blame- 
less in  the  premises  either.  But  at  any  rate,  it 
would  be  a  little  queer  if  those  who  hurl  this  mis- 
sive at  Rome  should  be  found  dwelling  in  houses 
of  glass  in  this  very  year  1808.  Ask  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, and  Max  Miiller,  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  and 
Darwin,  and  Lyell,  and  Huxley,  and  Professor 
Tyndall,  and  they  will  tell  you— (some  of  them, 
indeed,  have  said,  to  an  acquaintance  of  mine), 
7 


146  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

that  they  get  from  Protestant  religionists  nothing 
but  opposition  in  their  efforts  to  unearth  new 
scientific  truth ;  and  that  their  only  sympathizers 
in  the  religious  world  are  minds  that  have  been 
trained  ,in  the  Anglo-Catholic  Church.  When  it 
was  announced  that  the  "  world  was  round  and 
like  a  ball,"  Rome  resisted.  When  it  was  an- 
nounced that  "the  earth  moved  round  the  sun," 
Rome  resisted.  When  it  was  announced  that 
"  the  world  was  not  made  in  six  natural  days," 
Protestantism  resisted,  and  said  it  was  an  infidel 
statement.  When  it  was  announced  that  "  the 
flood  could  not  have  covered  the  whole  earth," 
where  was  Protestantism  ?  Why,  her  divines  were 
resisting.  She  didn't  shut  the  bold  scientists  up 
in  prison,  for  that  had  gone  out  of  fashion.  But 
she  did  the  nearest  thing  to  it  that  she  could. 
And  now,  to-day,  when  Darwin  tells  us  that 
"  Creation  was  and  is  by  development,"  where  are 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  Protestant  divines  ? 
Why,  in  the  opposition,  denouncing  Darwin. 
When  Lyell  and  De  Perthes  tell  us  "  man  has  ex- 
isted one  or  two  hundred  thousand  years,"  where 
are  these  Protestant  divines  that  are  such  friends 
of  science?  Protestant  religionists  stand  to-day 
in  the  attitude  of  open  resistance  to  the  advance 
of  science,  and  centuries  hence  the  finger  of  Histo- 
ry will  be  pointed  at  them,  as  they  to-day  justly 
point  the  finger  at  Rome.  It  is  even  so,  friends ; 
we  have  liberty  in  spite  of  and  not  because  of  the 
spirit  of  Protestant  religionists.  Liberty  in  reli- 


EEPLY  TO  PEOTESTANT  STKICTUEES.         147 

gion,  liberty  in  government,  liberty  in  speech,  in 
thought,  in  the  press,  we  have  it  because  of  awak- 
ening mind  and  not  because  of  that  spirit  which 
Protestantism  seems  to  create  among  men.  Rome 
and  Protestantism  are  equally  tyrants.  It  is 
awakening  mind  that*  has  been  fighting  for  its 
rights  on  the  domain  both  of  doctrine  and  of 
science ;  yes,  and  of  political  government  too, 
ever  since  the  Tenth  Century.  All  the  way  along 
from  the  Tenth  to  the  Fifteenth  Century  it  fought 
Rome,  and  all  the  way  down  from  the  Fifteenth 
to  the  Nineteenth  it  has  been  fighting  Protestant- 
ism. When  Protestantism  threw  off  Roman  ty- 
ranny, she  only  brought  in  another  tyranny — a 
doctrinal  tyranny.  You  must  believe  thus  and 
thus  as  to  the  atonement,  and  justification,  and 
regeneration,  and  election,  or  you  are  out  of  the 
pale  of  the  Gospel.  As  I  have  sat  by  the  dying- 
bed  of  a  sweet  spirit  that  had,  for  years,  been  filled 
with  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  man,  but 
had  known  little  of  theology,  and  as  I  have  heard, 
from  those  standing  around,  the  metaphysical  Prot- 
estant doctrine  and  the  rigid  notion  pressed,  and 
as  I  have  seen  the  dying  man  turning  his  eyes 
from  one  to  another,  annoyed — made  timorous  at 
the  edge  of  life — anxious  to  do  right — striving  to 
apprehend  in  accordance  with  the  iron  dogma,  I 
have  felt  how  cutting  and  galling  were  the  chains 
of  all  this  doctrinal  tyranny  which  Protestantism 
brought  in. 

The    Continental    Reformation,  with   all    its 


148     THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

claimed  liberty,  was  born  with  the  spirit  of  intol- 
erance in  it,  and  that  spirit  has  marked  its  career 
ever  since.  Its  intolerance  began  in  that  violent 
man  Luther,  a  man  who  uttered  such  language 
concerning  most  sacred  things  as  cannot  be  re- 
peated to  ears  polite.  I  l£how  that  Reformers  are 
made  out  of  rugged  material ;  that  they  are  always 
tough  men  to  meet.  But  that  is  neither  here  nor 
there  so  far  as  our  point  is  concerned.  Thus  its 
intolerance  began.  It  continued  in  Calvin,  than 
whom  a  more  tyrannical  spirit  can  hardly  be  con- 
ceived. It  slew  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  Strafford, 
and  Laud,  and  martyred  Charles  the  First.  It 
went  in  the  Puritans  to  Holland,  and  was  so  cross- 
grained  there  that  when  it  sailed  away  the  Dutch- 
men praised  God  for  the  merciful  deliverance. 
It  took  ship  and  threatened  to  come  to  New  York, 
and  would  have  landed  here  had  not  the  citizens 
found  means  to  bribe  the  captain  of  the  Mayflower 
to  land  his  uncomfortable  freight  by  mistake 
somewhere  else.  In  Cromwell  it  would  not  be 
content  to  enjoy  its  own  Congregationalism  qui- 
etly ;  no,  but  it  broke  into  the  Church  of  England ; 
it  stripped  off  the  garments  from  our  clergy ;  with 
axes  and  hammers  it  broke  down  our  carved  work. 
It  hanged  witches.  It  drove  out  Roger  "Williams 
from  its  settlements  into  the  inhospitable  forests 
of  Rhode  Island  for  the  liberty  of  belief  which  he 
claimed.  In  the  Quakers  it  would  not  be  content 
to  enjoy  silent  meetings,  but  must  go  in  and  dis- 
turb the  Puritan  meetings  with  not  only  violent 


EEPLY  TO  PEOTESTANT  STEICTURES. 

but  even  indecent  behavior.  And  then,  turning 
round,  in  the  Puritans  it  hanged  the  Quakers.  In 
the  eighteenth  century  it  pelted  John  Wesley 
through  the  streets  and  broke  up  his  meetings. 
In  the  nineteenth  century  it  mobs  our  priests 
while  at  their  solemn  services  in  the  east  of  Lon- 
don ;  and  as  for  our  Sisters  of  Mercy,  for  the  crime 
those  gentle  women  have  been  guilty  of  in  de- 
voting themselves  to  lives  of  charity  and  prayer, 
to  watchings  in  pestilential  hospitals,  it  attacks 
them  in  the  streets  with  missiles  till  they  fly  for 
their  lives.  Every  mail  from  England  brings  us 
accounts  of  the  tyranny  and  intolerance  of  Prot- 
estantism ;  while  in  America,  not  content  with 
staying  in  its  own  houses  of  worship,  it  goes  out 
of  its  way  into  one  of  ours,  and  as  the  priest  stands 
performing  his  function  at  the  altar,  it  speaks  out 
in  feminine  tone  of  voice,  so  loud  as  to  be  heard  for 
four  or  five  pews  around,  "  I  would  like  to  bang  that 
man's  back  with  my  parasol."  I  tell  you,  my 
friends,  we  have  liberty,  and  always  have  had  it, 
in  spite  of  and  not  because  of  Protestantism. 

Some  of  my  beloved  brethren,  who  entirely 
agree  with  •  me,  regret  that  I  have  used  the  word 
"Protestantism."  They  would  have  preferred 
"  Sectarianism."  But  we  never  can  cure  that  word 
"  Protestant "  of  the  general  meaning  it  conveys 
to  nine  minds  out  of  ten ;  that  is  to  say,  opposi- 
tion not  only  to  all  that  is  Roman  in  Roman 
Catholicism,  but  also  to  all  that  is  distinctively 
Catholic,  both  in  the  Roman  and  Anglican 


150  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

Churches.  The  vast  majority  use  the  word  "  Prot- 
estant" in  that  sense,  and  so  its  meaning  is  fixed. 
When,  therefore,  we  apply  the  word  to  ourselves, 
we  apply  it  in  a  non-natural  sense.  And  what  is 
the  use  of  our  perpetually  using  it  for  ourselves 
and  perpetually  explaining  our  peculiar  meaning 
of  it  to  persons  who  will  not  understand  ?  The 
word  is  a  hopeless  case.  Let  the  sects  have  it — 
particularly  as  we  are  a  Catholic  Church. 

Some  of  my  brethren  regret  that  I  have  spoken 
so  plainly.  "We  want  peace,  say  they.  Ah,  what 
we  want  is  not  peace  but  truth.  "  But,"  say  they, 
"  you  will  frighten  away  some."  My  friends,  we 
have  pursued  this  timid  policy  too  long.  While 
we  have  been  trying  to  lure  the  few  easily-fright- 
ened ones  into  the  Church  by  reticence,  that  reti- 
cence has  been  standing  by  and  allowing  thou- 
sands to  go  down  en  masse  into  infidelity.  Be- 
sides, let  the  lines  be  drawn.  Let  the  world 
understand  that  we  are  not  with  the  Protestant 
sects.  Until  we  do  this  frankly,  our  sister  Churches 
of  the  Catholic  world  cannot  be  expected  to  look 
upon  us  with  other  than  a  suspicious  eye ;  nor 
(what  is  of  vast  importance)  will  we  be  in  position 
to  command  their  attention  and  respect,  as  we 
stand  our  ground,  and  demand  of  them  to  modify 
their  local  systems — to  cast  off  their  errors  to  such 
extent  as  will  enable  a  restoration  of  intercom- 
munion. "We  are  twenty  millions ;  let  us  be  true 
to  ourselves,  and  we  shall,  if  not  in  this  century, 
perhaps  in  the  next,  be  the  means  of  reforming  the 
whole  Catholic  Church. 


VIII. 

THE  LATH  PRACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF 
THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM,  BY 
PROTESTANTS  THEMSELVES. 

FJBOM  what  has  been  said  and  printed  during 
the  past  week,*  some  of  it  having  been  written 
with  direct  reference,  and  some  of  it  having  been 
publicly  said,  without  any  reference  (at  least  any 
avowed  reference)  to  what  has  been  laid  before 
you  from  this  place,  I  suppose  there  are  many  of 
you  who  regard  the  first  campaign  of  the  war  as 
about  closed.  Still  it  may  not  be  without  interest 
to  look  a  little  at  the  results. 

During  the  week  a  National  Christian  Con- 
vention of  Protestant  divines  and  laymen  assem- 
bled in  this  city,  and  were  in  session  several  days. 
Some  of  their  proceedings  are  of  interest  to  us  in 
this  connection.  In  noticing  these  proceedings,  I 
will  not  recapitulate  the  charges  that  have  been 

*  These  Discourses  were  preached  in  Christ  Church,  New  York, 
during  October  and  November,  1868.  This  closing  Sermon  was 
delivered  on  the  evening  of  the  last  Sunday  after  Trinity  (Novem- 
ber 22),  1868. 


152  THE  FAILURE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

made  against  Protestantism.  I  trust  to  your  mem- 
ories. But  with  regard  to  those  charges,  it  seems 
that,  whatever  may  have  been  urged  in  the  past 
few  weeks  against  our  position,  Protestants  them- 
selves have  already  been  arousing  to  the  sad  truth 
of  what  we  have  charged.  For,  why  was  this 
Convention  held?  It  was  to  discuss  ways  and 
means  for  the  cure  of  evils.  What  were  some  of 
those  evils  ?  "We  will  see  anon.  The  Convention 
presented  the  melancholy  spectacle  of  a  body  of 
people  guilty  of  a  mistake,  awakening  to  the  re- 
sults of  that  mistake,  but  utterly  oblivious  that 
those  results  were  directly  traceable  to  funda- 
mental errors  inherent  in  the  system  to  which 
they  still  cling ;  utterly  oblivious  to  the  fact  that 
the  evils,  to  discuss  which  they  met,  have  not  re- 
sulted from  the  bad  application  of  a  good  system, 
but  from  the  untiring  application  of  a  bad  system. 
Let  us  see  what  their  circular  letter  conven- 
ing the  body  says.  I  will  not  read  it  all,  only 
extracts.  The  object  of  the  Convention  was,  it 
seems,  to  consider,  among  other  things,  "  the  in- 
difference of  the  multitudes  to  the  claims  of  the 
•Gospel ;  "  "  the  organized  forms  of  attack  on  the 
authority  of  God's  word ;  "  "  the  inroads  of  an 
infidel  philosophy  reared  upon  the  foundation  of 
universal  slcepticism"  And  the  circular  goes  on 
to  say  that  the  utmost  energy  is  demanded,  "lest 
the  high  vantage-ground  God  has  so  graciously 
given  His  people  in  this  country  ~be  stolen  from 
them." 


PEACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILUKE.     153 

Well,  there  it  is ;  what  more,  pray,  can  we 
ask  ?  Whether  with  any  reference  to  us  or  not 
makes  no  difference,  the  truth  of  the  main  charges, 
every  one  of  them,  is  admitted  in  an  official  docu- 
ment of  a  national  Protestant  body.  And  several 
hundred  of  the  leaders  convene  to  see  what  can  be 
done  about  it.  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been 
said  against  us,  here  is  the  ugly  fact  that  Protes- 
tants are  alarmed ;  that  they  are  arousing  to  the 
truth  that  they  have  lost  their  hold  both  upon  the 
intellect  and  upon  the  masses  of  the  day ;  they 
feel  that  both  are  slipping  away  from  them,  and 
that  peculiar  vigilance  is  demanded  on  their  part 
lest  they  utterly  lose  the  vantage-ground  they  once 
had  entirely.  Indeed,  beloved,  it  is  a  very  note- 
worthy fact  that  both  Rome  and  Protestantism 
have  lost  the  men  of  the  day.  Their  adherents 
are  mostly  women.  There  must  be  an  intellectual 
feebleness  about  both  systems.  And  there  is  an- 
other very  noteworthy  fact,  that  wherever  true 
Catholicity  has  been  brought  out  it  gains  more 
men  than  women.  I  do  not  say  that  women  are 
not  susceptible  to  it.  In  the  end  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  masculine  and  the  feminine  elements 
of  its  adherents  will  be  equalized,  but  at  present 
more  men  surrender  to  it  than  women.  The  fact 
is,  whatever  we  may  say  of  the  women  of  the  day, 
there  are  thousands  of  men  left  outside  the  walls 
of  any  faith,  who  cannot  accept  Protestantism, 
which  they  have  shaken  off,  who  will  not  surren- 
der their  proper  freedom  of  thought  to  Rome,  but 


154:  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

who  are  craving  for  a  faith  of  some  kind — for  a 
Christianity  with  reality,  robustness,  and  common 
sense  in  it. 

But  let  us  see  a  little  more  about  the  action 
of  this  Convention.  In  discussing  the  first  ques- 
tion that  was  up,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  T.  Duryea  said 
that  "  whereas  the  Saviour  had  laid  the  com- 
mand on  His  disciples  to  go  and  preach  the  Gos- 
pel to  every  creature,  Christian  people  were  'be- 
ginning to  realize  the  startling  fact  that  the  Gos- 
pel was  not  presented  to  every  creature.  It  was 
not  presented  to  the  masses  in  this  city.  And  he 
said  that  proportionately  the  Gospel  was  not  pre- 
sented to  the  masses  as  much  in  the  country  as  in 
the  city.  Something  was  wrong."  Comment 
were  unkind  and  unnecessary.  We  pass  on. 

You  will  remember  that  the  Church  is  large 
in  England  and  very  small  in  New  England.  Her 
Catholicity  has  been  brought  out  more  and  more 
during  the  last  thirty  years  in  England,  but  until 
recently  her  Catholicity  has  been  very  little 
brought  out  in  large  sections  of  New  England. 
Now  what  did  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hall  and  others  say 
in  the  Convention  ?  Why,  when  somebody  called 
for  missionary  effort  in  England  and  Germany, 
Dr.  Coy  said,  "  Germany  is  full  of  infidelity,"  and 
Dr.  Hall,  saying  nothing  about  Germany,  leaving 
the  claim  all  right  for  that,  "  insisted  that  New 
England  needed  more  missionary  work  than  Old 
England,"  and  he  "bewailed  the  unconverted 
state  of  New  England."  Ah,  what  a  falling  off 


PEACTIGAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILUEE.     155 

under  two  centuries  of  Protestantism  is  here  ad- 
mitted !  'New  England,  once  filled  with  converted 
Puritans,  now  bewailed  for  its  unconverted  state. 

Immediately  after  Dr.  Hall's  remarks,  there 
fell  another  morceau,  which  we  will  pluck  by  the 
way :  "  Mr.  Moody,  of  Chicago,"  says  the  report, 
"  made  the  noteworthy  remark  that  city  missions 
had  proved  failures,  on  the  ground  that  the  wrang- 
ling among  the  different  sects  prevented  the  crea- 
tion of  permanent  congregations  from  the  converts 
made."  Whether  that  is  the  sole  ground  of  their 
failure  we  will  not  discuss  now,  since  it  would  be 
but  a  repetition  of  what  has  already  been  said. 
II.  F.  Durant,  of  Boston,  then  appealed  to  the 
ministry,  "  to  thunder  from  the  pulpits  against 
infidelity."  But  suppose  the  writings  of  Theodore 
Parker,  wrho  is  the  legitimate  brain-child  of  John 
Calvin,  should  thunder  back.  What  then  ?  The 
thoughtful  mind  of  Boston  and  Massachusetts 
understands,  and  has  understood  for  some  time, 
which  has  the  best  of  the  argument. 

I  will  not  reiterate  another  statement  I  have 
made ;  it  will  suggest  itself  to  your  minds  when  I 
say  that  at  that  very  session  the  Rev.  Dr.  Matlock 
said,  "  that  there  was  a  deal  of  infidelity^  in  the 
Church.  All  around  he  saw  a  world  of  human 
beings  going  down  to  the  blackness  of  death." 

But  let  us  look  a  little  at  what  went  on  the 
last  day  of  the  Convention.  In  discussing  the 
question,  "By  what  means  can  we  (the  Protes- 
tants) reach  those  who  do  not  come  to  our  church- 


156  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

es  ? "  Mr.  Moody  said,  among  other  things,  "  What 
we  wanted  was  live  preaching  to  reach  the  masses ; 
that  opera-singing  in  chnrches  can't  do  it."  So 
Protestantism  is  waking  up,  too,  to  that  subordi- 
nate mistake. 

Now  let  us  see  what  the  Rev.  George  Wash- 
burn  said.  I  will  not  reiterate  to  you  what  I  have 
said  about  Catholicity's  sisterhoods  and  brother- 
hoods. It  will  all  suggest  itself  to  you  as  I  read. 
You  will  remember  that  one  of  the  pieces  of  vandal- 
ism wrought  by  the  Continental  Reformation  was 
the  abolition  of  Religious  Orders.  And  some  peo- 
ple are  very  much  shocked  indeed  that  our  Church, 
true  to  her  Catholicity,  should  encourage  the  for- 
mation of  Sisterhoods  of  Mercy.  It  is  considered 
a  very  alarming  symptom,  if  not  very  wicked,  for 
any  woman  to  put  on  a  black  bonnet  and  habit, 
and  devote  herself  to  the  Lord's  work.  But  this 
National  Protestant  Convention  seems  to  have 
yielded  the  ground  to  Catholicity  in  this  matter ; 
to  have  acknowledged  not  only  that  Protestantism 
has  been  guilty  of  a  blunder,  but  of  a  very  bad 
blunder.  The  subject  was,  "  Women's  work  in  the 
Church."  Dr.  Washburn  said :  "  The  theory  that 
woman  has  no  place  in  the  Church  deprives 
America  of  two-thirds  of  its  Christian  force.  He 
would  ask,  was  there  any  distinctive  work  for  wo- 
men in  America  ?  That  there  was,  nobody  would 
presume  to  deny.  He  then  spoke  of  the  work  of 
women  in  the  early  Church,  and  of  the  allusions 
of  St.  Chrysostom  and  other  Fathers  to  them. 


PKACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILURE. 

The  work  of  these  holy  ladies  was  to  go  out  and 
care  for  the  sick  and  poor,  the  widow  and  the 
orphan,  and  to  carry  the  G-ospel  into  every  home 
and  heart.  Such  women  they  wanted  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Christian  Church  at  the  present  day ; 
women  who  would  make  themselves  at  home  in 
every  house  ;  who  would  carry  the  precious  word 
of  life  around  with  them,  and  give  it  a  lasting 
tenement  in  the  house  of  intemperate  fathers  and 
disconsolate  wives  and  children,  and  thereby  effect 
a  complete  regeneration  in  the  morals  of  the  way- 
faring. He  would  again  be  for  appointing  a  sepa- 
rate class  of  women  for  visiting  jails,  poor-houses, 
hospitals,  etc.,  on  visits  of  consolation  and  charity. 
The  existence  of  charitable  institutions  generally 
through  the  country  would  be  a  great  boon.  We 
need  trained  women  in  the  Church ;  we  want  a 
place  where  they  can  be  educated  for  this  field. 
The  churches  should  open  recruiting-offices  for 
them.  A  home  should  also  be  established,  so  that, 
when  our  sisters  return  from  foreign  or  domestic 
mission-work,  they  may  find  a  place  of  welcome 
and  of  rest.  Suppose  we  open  in  this  city  a  House 
under  the  care  of  the  Church.  Here  all  women 
who  desire  to  enlist  in  the  service  of  the  Lord  can 
be  trained  and  educated.  He  then  alluded  to  the 
fact  that  the  Romish  Church  owed  two-thirds  of  its 
existence  to  the  labors  of  females — the  Society  of 
St.  Yincent  de  Paul."  "Mr.  McDougall  highly 
eulogized  the  labors  of  the  nuns  in  Canada.  He 
said  the  strength  of  the  Catholic  Church  lay  in  the 


158  THE  FAILUEE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

sisterhoods  which  it  had  established.  Their  be- 
neficent ministrations  have  attached  all  sufferers  to 
the  Church  that  sends  them  forth."  u  Mr.  Trask, 
of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Gary,  of  Utica,  and  others 
spoke  in  high  terms  of  approval  of  the  object."  It 
is  to  be  trusted,  after  this  fiat  acknowledgment  of 
the  Protestant  blunder,  this  semi-official  surren- 
der, that  this  will  be  the  last  we  shall  hear  of  Puri- 
tan opposition  to  Sisterhoods.  One  more  remark 
on  the  topic  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Blair  said,  "  He  was  glad  to  see  so  many 
were  in  favor  of  adopting  this  element  of  strength. 
The  great  want  of  Protestantism  is  the  aid  of  wo- 
men. We  are  weak  " — mark  that — "  we  are  weak 
because  we  have  rejected  the  noblest  of  mankind 
from  the  work  Christ  gave  us  to  do." 

But  I  must  bring  these  rich  quotations  to  a 
close.  And  I  will  do  so  by  showing  you  the 
spirit  which  has  pervaded  Protestantism.  The 
question  was,  "  "Why  so  many  churches  failed  to 
reach  the  poor  ? "  Several  clergymen  spoke  in 
reference  to  the  matter,  "  during  which  the  ques- 
tion of  pew-fees  was  extensively  discussed ;  it  be- 
ing the  opinion  that  while  the  rights  of  the  poor 
to  adequate  accommodations  in  the  church  should 
be  regarded,  those  of  the  rich  should  not  be  vio- 
lated. The  general  opinion  was,  that  proper  ac- 
commodations should  be  secured  for  each,  the 
places  to  be  apportioned  out  to  the  poor  to  wor- 
ship in  at  the  smallest  possible  expense  to  them." 
I  have  only  to  set  over  against  this  practice  of 


PEACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILUKE.     150 

Protestantism,  thus  defended,  a  certain  remark 
with  which  some  of  you  may  be  familiar.  "  My 
brethren,  have  not  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  with  respect  of  persons.  For  if  there  come 
into  your  assembly  a  man  with  a"  gold  ring,  in 
goodly  apparel,  and  there  come  in  also  a  poor  man 
in  vile  raiment,  and  ye  have  respect  to  him  that 
weareth  the  gay  clothing,  and  say  unto  him,  Sit 
thou  here  in  a  good  place;  and  say  to  the  poor 
Stand  thou  there,  or  sit  here  under  my  footstool, 
are  ye  not  then  partial  in  yourselves  and  are  be- 
come judges  of  evil  thoughts?  Hearken,  my  be- 
loved brethren ;  hath  not  G»od  chosen  the  poor  of 
this  world  rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  Him  ? 
But  ye  have  despised  the  poor."  In  justice  be  it 
said,  there  were  speakers  who  opposed  this  "  gen- 
eral  opinion,"  and  who  spoke  noble  words  of  truth 
in  reference  to  the  subject.  So  there  were  at  least 
marked  evidences  in  the  Convention  of  a  reaction 
from  another  blunder  of  Protestantism.* 

*  The  week  after  the  above  sermon  was  preached,  an  eminent 
clergyman  of  one  of  the  "  Collegiate  Churches  "  of  this  city  deliv- 
ered a  discourse  on  "  The  Evangelization  of  the  Masses,"  in  which 
be  made  the  following  statements,  viz. :  "  Every  age  seems  to 
have  had  its  own  peculiar  problem,  and  certainly,  from  the  facts 
with  which  we  are  familiar,  this  question,  How  shall  we  evangel- 
ize the  masses  ?  seems  to  be  the  one  left  for  our  solution.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  the  present  population  of  this  city  is  about 
three-fourths  of  a  million  of  people,  about  one-half  of  whom  are 
foreign  born,  comprising  forty-two  different  nationalities.  And 
for  the  spiritual  improvement  of  this  entire  number  there  are 
about  350  churches  of  all  denominations,  capable  of  containing 


160  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

I  now  come  to  another  remarkable  feature  of 
the  week.  It  is  a  leading  article  from  one  of  the 
most  prominent  religious  papers  published  in  the 
interest  of  Protestantism.  I  select  it  for  notice 
because  it  leads  all  that  has  been  said  on  the  other 
side  in  ability  and  tactics.  I  leave  you  to  judge 
whether  or  not  it  is  another  practical  admission 

less  than  325,000  people.  Of  evangelical  churches  there  are  275, 
able  to  accommodate  about  200,000.  Of  evangelical  ministers 
there  are  500,  but  of  pastors  only  250.  The  number  of  evangeli- 
cal Christians  is  about  70,000.  In  other  words,  there  are  in  our 
midst,  this  day,  about  300,000  souls  to  whom  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  is  quite  as  foreign  as  though  there  were  no  Gospel.  To 
obtain  a  conception  of  the  vast  multitude  thus  dead,  as  it  were,  to 
all  Christian  teaching,  were  they  to  stand  side  by  side  (allowing 
two  feet  for  each),  the  line  would  not  end  till  the  twenty-seventh 
milestone  had  been  passed ;  or  were  they  to  sit  in  our  city  cars, 
thirty  to  a  car,  more  than  10,000  cars  would  be  required  to  con- 
tain them. 

"And  now  the  question  arises,  How  is  this  vast  multitude  to 
be  brought  under  the  sway  of  moral  and  Christian  influence? 
Bibles  have  been  profusely  scattered,  and  pithy  tracts  have  been 
systematically  distributed  throughout  the  city,  and  there  have 
been  established  Sabbath  and  mission  schools,  prayer-meetings, 
sewing-societies,  and  reading-rooms.  Yarious  have  been  the  in- 
strumentalities employed  to  move  these  same  multitudes,  and  yet 
no  marked,  deep  religious  impression  has  been  made  upon  them. 
Not  that  the  Bible  and  tract,  the  establishment  of  Sabbath-schools, 
missions,  and  the  like,  have  done  nothing  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  city.  By  no  means.  But  the  methods  which  thus  far  have 
been  pursued  aimed  at  the  religious  improvement  of  the  masses, 
as  masses,  have  failed,  inasmuch  as  it  is  undeniably  true  that,  as 
a  city,  we  are  neither  as  moral  nor  as  righteous  as  we  were  years 
ago.  How,  then,  it  is  asked,  is  this  melancholy  fact  to  be  re- 
versed ?  .  .  .  .  Men  may  say  what  they  may,  the  masses  have  not 
had  the  Gospel  preached  to  them.  And  for  the  reason  that  the 


PEACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILUEE. 

that  the  first  campaign  of  the  war  is  closed.  "  We 
can  easily  imagine,"  it  says,  "  that  some  persons 
would  think  Dr.  Ewer  has  the  best  of  the  argu- 
ment from  his  stand-point.  For,  it  seems  to  us, 
that  the  contest  has  been  fought  upon  a  false  issue, 
which  he  has  adroitly  presented,  and  which  his 
opponents  .have  too  readily  allowed;  that  his 
premises  involve  a  definition  as  to  the  aim  of 
Protestantism  which  has  been  suffered  to  pass 
without  scrutiny."  So,  it  seems,  the  battle  proving 
rather  disastrous  at  our  stand-point,  the  editor 
thinks  it  best  to  beat  a  retreat.  He  summons  the 
Protestants  away  from  the  field,  where  they  have 
been  fighting,  and  tells  them  to  mass  together  in 
another  position,  and  there  showjight,  wherejhey 


missionaries,  whose  special  work  thus  far  this  seems  to  have  been, 
do  not  really  get  at  the  masses." 

The  remedy  which  he  proposes  is  a  more  vigorous  preaching 
of  Protestantism  among  the  masses. 

Some  thirty  years  ago,  a  man  was  taken  sick  with  biliousness. 
It  was  in  Maryland.  His  family  physician  administered  calomel 
to  him.  There  being  no  improvement,  he  administered  the  calo- 
mel in  larger  doses.  He  tried  it  in  powders,  he  then  tried 
it  in  pill-form;  he  then  tried  it  mixed  with  molasses,  but  he 
failed  totally  in  reaching  the  seat  of  the  disease.  At  length  it 
was  resolved  that  a  consulting  physician  should  be  called  in.  The 
two  doctors  retired  into  a  room  by  themselves.  They  remained 
there  over  an  hour,  consulting  upon  the  case,  and  then  came  forth 
and  went  into  the  sick  man's  room.  He  looked  up  inquiringly  at 
them,  when  the  consulting  physician — who,  by-the-way,  was  a  man 
of  very  grave  countenance — leaned  over  the  bed,  and,  looking 

through  his  spectacles,  said,  "  Mr.  B ,  we  have  thought  over 

this  case,  and  we  would  like  to  know  how  you  would  like  to  take 
— your  calomel  ?  " 


THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

can  do  better.  Let  us  watcli  them  as  they  run, 
and  see  whether  it  is  worth  our  while  to  run  after 
them.  The  writer  says :  "  To  begin  with  funda- 
mentals, when  is  any  thing  proved  a  failure  ?  It 
is  when  it  is  proved  either  to  have  ceased  to  exist 
without  achieving  its  object,  or  that,  if  it  still  ex- 
ists, it  has  not,  after  sufficient  trial,  attained  the 
end  or  ends  which  it  proposed.  We  trust  that 
these  positions  are  not  questionable.  Now,  then, 
that  Protestantism  is  a  failure,  because  it  has  died 
without  any  results,  will  hardly  be  advanced." 

Of  course  not.  Protestantism  has  had  some 
results.  It  has  not  failed  in  a  good  many  things. 
It  has  not  failed  in  plunging  Germany  into  infi- 
delity. It  has  not  failed  in  keeping  the  poor  out 
of  churches.  It  has  not  failed  in  "  rejecting  the 
noblest  of  mankind"  (viz.,  woman)  "from  the 
work  Christ  gave  us  to  do."  It  has  not  failed,  on 
the  contrary,  it  has  triumphantly  succeeded  in 
making  Dr.  Hall  "bewail  the  unconverted  state 
of  ~NQW  England."  It  has  not  failed  in  substi- 
tuting a  Sabellian  God  for  the  Tri-Unity.  It  has 
not  failed  in  killing  out  all  definite  faith  in  Amer- 
ica. It  has  not  failed  in  ostracizing  and  mobbing 
those  who  wish  to  worship  in  a  mode  different 
from  its  own.  But  I  will  not  go  on  with  a  list  of 
its  successes. 

The  writer  continues :  "  That  it  still  exists, 
will  be  granted  by  Dr.  Ewer,  we  suppose.  There- 
fore, if  it  is  a  failure,  it  is  because  it  has  not,  after 
sufficient  trial,  done  what  it  aimed  at,  and  we 


PKACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILUEE. 

allow  that  it  has  had  sufficient  trial,  that  it  may 
be  judged  by  its  history  up  to  this  day.  Thus  the 
question  is  narrowed  to  this,  "What  was  and  is  the 
object  of  Protestantism  ?  Here  has  been  the 
error." 

Then  the  writer  goes  on  to  state  that  it  is  very 
easy,  if  they  permit  us  to  define  what  the  aim  of 
Protestantism  is,  for  us  to  make  out  a  strong  case. 
He  says  :  "  Thus  the  reverend  gentleman  in  ques- 
tion has  impliedly  assumed  that  Protestantism 
meant  the  establishment  of  a  system,  or  Church, 
or  organization,  which  was  to  do  certain  things, 
and  consequently  urged  his  points  as  to  disin- 
tegration, etc.,  with  force,  while  some  of  his  op- 
ponents tacitly  admitted  this  idea."  Exactly 
what  that  sentence  means  to  say,  I  do  not  know, 
and  the  use  of  the  words  "  and  so  forth"  does  not 
help  to  clear  it  much.  However,  whatever  it  is, 
the  writer  goes  on  to  say,  "  But  Protestantism 
aims  at  no  such  thing."  What !  Protestantism 
not  aim  at  preserving  Christianity  on  earth  ? 
Well,  if  it  does  not  aim  at  that,  it  had  better 
close  its  doors.  Protestantism,  as,  forsooth,  the 
only  true  presentment  of  Christianity,  not  aim 
at  reaching  the  masses  ?  Protestantism  not  aim 
at  preserving  the  Bible  for  the  world  ?  "  Oh, 
no  !  "  says  the  writer ;  the  enemy  flee  from  the 
battle-ground.  "  It  is  merely,"  says  the  writer, 
"  a  principle  of  action  asserted  and  assumed  by 
certain  Christians."  Well,  if  it  is  frittered  down 
-to  that,  all  we  can  say  is,  it  is  a  worse  failure 


THE  FAILURE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

than  we  took  it  to  be.  But,  behold  the  enemy  on 
the  new  battle-field  which  it  has  selected,  and  to 
which  it  has  fled  for  safety.  Protestantism  has 
only  two  aims,  it  seems,  according  to  the  writer. 
They  are  not  those  that  I  have  stated,  at  all.  It 
does  not  care  whether  Christianity  runs  down 
into  Rationalism  or  not.  It  does  not  care  whether 
the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  unto  them  or 
not.  It  does  not  care  whether  or  not  vast  regions 
of  country,  after  being  burned  over  and  over 
again  by  the  fires  of  Revivalism,  are  left  at  last 
dead  to  any  religious  feeling.  But  it  seems  its 
solitary  aims  are  two — first,  a  negative  aim,  and 
second,  a  positive.  First,  "  to  throw  off  the  spirit- 
ual despotism  of  Rome."  Well,  we  admit  that  it 
has  triumphantly  succeeded  in  doing  that.  We 
do  not  deny  that  it  has  swung  clear  away  from 
tyranny  over  to  an  equally  disastrous  license, 
which  has  wrecked  its  millions  of  souls.  If  that  be 
success,  then  Protestantism  is  welcome  to  all  the 
credit  it  can  extract  from  it.  In  order  for  the 
writer  to  prove  that,  in  succeeding  in  disen- 
thralling herself  from  Roman  tyranny  at  the 
same  time  that  true  Catholicity  did,  Protestant- 
ism did  not  fall  into  an  equally  bad  evil,  and, 
therefore,  make  a  failure  of  it  while  trying  to 
right  herself,  he  has  still  got  to  come  back  to  our 
stand-point,  and  drive  us  from  our  position,  that 
Protestantism  is  incipient  Rationalism.  This  we 
have  shown  to  be  the  case,  both  logically  and 
historically ;  and  neither  argument  has  been 


PKACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILURE. 

touched.  So  it  is  hardly  worth  our  while,  unless 
something  more  is  done,  to  chase  up  the  flying 
foe  on  this  point. 

But  it  seems  there  was  one  more  aim  of  Prot- 
estantism, according  to  the  writer.  It  was,  "to 
promote  the  spread  of  the  Bible  and  the  preach- 
ing of  the  pure  Gospel — the  evangelical  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  sacerdotal  system"  ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  preaching  of  Protestantism  !  Of  course,  we 
admit  that  the  Protestants  have  succeeded  mar- 
vellously in  preaching  Protestantism.  The  foe  is 
shrewd.  But  his  shrewdness  does  not  save  him. 
He  is  not  permitted  thus  to  dodge  the  question. 
Of  course,  Protestantism  has  succeeded  in  preach- 
ing Protestantism,  but  the  real  question  is,  what 
have  been  the  effects,  the  results,  of  that  Protes- 
tantism which  has  been  preached?  The  real 
question  is,  whether  Protestantism  is  the  "  pure 
Gospel."  He  assumes  that.  But  he  is  not  per- 
mitted thus  to  beg  the  question.  We  admit,  too, 
that  Protestantism  has  helped  true  Catholicity  in 
spreading  the  Bible.  But  the  real  question  is, 
what  have  been  the  effects  of  the  peculiar  mode 
in  which  Protestantism  has  turned  the  Bible  out 
adrift  in  the  world  ? '  So  long  as  they  yield  to  us 
the  point  that  the  effects  have  been  bad,  they  are 
welcome  to  all  the  credit  they  can  extract  from 
the  mere  fact  itself  of  their  spreading  the  Bible. 
And  it  is  still  less  worth  our  while  to  chase  up  the 
flying  foe  on  this  other  point. 

And    now    comes    the    best    thing    in    this 


THE  FAILUKE  OF  PEOTESTANTISM. 

shrewdly-written  paper.  It  is  the  most  excel- 
lent attempt  yet  at  clouding  the  matter.  He 
says  of  us :  "  If  our  points  are  met,  that  will  not 
prove  Protestantism  a  success ;  and  even  if  they 
cannot  be  met,  the  reverse  does  not  inevitably  re- 
sult." How  does  he  sustain  this  assertion  ?  Why, 
as  follows  :  "  If  he  (Dr.  Ewer)  shows  that  there 
follow  upon  Protestantism  Rationalism  and  dis- 
integration of  organizations,  he  merely  shows 
that  men  have  abused  the  good  principle  of  lib- 
erty of  conscience  (and  abuse  of  a  good  thing  is 
always  possible)."  Certainly,  if  I  had  simply 
shown  that  Rationalism  follows  as  a  mere  fact. 
But  the  difficulty  is,  more  has  been  shown  than 
this,  viz.,  that  the  inevitable  logical  result  of  Prot- 
estantism is  Rationalism  •  that,  if  any  man  thinks 
and  is  unrestrained  by  other  influences,  such  as 
prejudice,  social  affection,  position  before  the 
world,  or  what  not,  he  is  bound  to  go  down  from 
Protestant  premises  to  the  Rationalistic  conclu- 
sion ;  that  the  Unitarians  decidedly  have  the 
argument  on  the  Orthodox  Congregationalists. 
The  mere  assertion  that  "  men  may  have  abused 
the  good  principle  of  liberty  of  conscience  "  does 
not  meet  this.  It  is  not  a  question  as  to  abuse  of 
a  good  principle.  It  is  a  question  as  to  whether 
or  not  thinking  men  can  help  themselves ;  whether 
they  are  not  bound  to  follow  premises  to  their 
legitimate  conclusion.  And  there  is  no  way  for 
Protestants  to  escape  their  ditemma,  but  to  show 


PEACTICAL  ADMISSIONS  OF  ITS  FAILUEE. 

that  Rationalism  is  not  the  logical  conclusion  of 
Protestantism.  But  the  writer -goes  on:  "If  he 
(Dr.  Ewer)  shows  that  it  (Protestantism)  has  failed 
to  reach  the  masses,  the  reply  is  not  to  be  a  tu 
quoque  to  Catholicism,  but  to  admit  that  the  zeal 
of  Protestants  has  not  been  equal  to  their  light, 
not  that  they  could  not  reach  the  masses  if  they 
would."  But  the  difficulty,  brethren,  is,  we  have 
not  only  shown  that  Protestantism  has  failed  to 
reach  the  masses,  but  why  it  has  failed,  and  that 
it  is  positively  not  from  want  of  zeal.  And  the 
points  we  have  made  on  this  have  not  been 
touched. 

Why,  my  friends,  is  it  possible  that  what  has 
hitherto  been  said  on  the  other  side  is  all  that  can 
be  said  for  this  great  phenomenon  of  Protestant- 
ism ?  One  can  hardly  believe  his  eyes  as  he  reads 
what  has  been  written.  But  I  turn  to  our  writer. 
He  concludes  his  article  as  follows,  viz. :  "  It 
seems  that  this  is  the  true  way  to  meet  the 
preacher  whose  words  have  startled  and  shocked 
us,  by  showing  that  he  takes  a  false  position  ;  and 
also,  it  seems  that,  to  meet  him  thus,  provides  a 
way  of  turning  the  tables  on  him,  on  which  we 
may  dwell  at  another  time.  In  closing,  we  hope 
that  some  one  may  take  up  and  develop  more  at 
length,  and  accurately,  this  question  which  we 
have  briefly  sought  to  present — that  is,  what  does 
Protestantism  seek  to  do,  and  how  has  it  suc- 
ceeded therein  ? "  The  writer  very  prudently  in- 


168  THE  FAILUKE  OF  PKOTESTANTISM. 

troduces  the  above  paragraph  with  the  words, 
"  It  may  be  we  are  mistaken."  It  is  for  you  to 
decide,  brethren,  whether  he  has  made  out  his 
case.  One  thing  is  evident — he  is  keen  enough 
to  see  that  the  first  campaign  is  about  closed. 


THE    END. 


